St. Jude Shrine Church

Saint Jude Shrine is located at 3103 North Main Street, in Stafford, Texas, near Houston. Since 1975, it has been supported by the lay foundation known as Traditional Catholics of Houston, Inc. (TCOH), which was duly incorporated as a Texas nonprofit organization in 1974. Saint Jude’s church building was constructed in 1948 and was formerly known as Holy Family Catholic Mission. It was consecrated on 4 April 1949 by Most Reverend Christopher Byrne, Bishop of Galveston, and was operated for 25 years by the Order of Saint Basil. In 1974, the Basilian Fathers vacated the premises in favor of a larger facility, and in 1975, the diocese put the property up for sale while offering to lease it to a Lutheran congregation. But when presented with a bona fide purchase contract, the diocese quickly sold the mission church, plus its adjacent school auditorium and surrounding land to a real estate developer who then facilitated the rescue of the consecrated building by deeding it to TCOH.

For months, the laypeople of TCOH had invoked the intercession of Saint Jude Thaddeus, the patron of desperate cases, to assist their efforts in acquiring the church. Finally, at the end of October 1975, their prayers were answered. Since the former owners of the church moved to new quarters only a short distance away, while retaining the name “Holy Family Catholic Church,” it was necessary for the mission’s new custodians to give it a new name, and “Saint Jude Shrine,” was unanimously chosen by them in appreciation for its acquisition through the intervention of the “Saint of the Impossible.” However, even three years prior to its procurement of the Stafford church, TCOH had been independently sponsoring Catholic worship in and around the greater Houston area at temporary locations.

To date, 58 senior Catholic clergymen from the Americas, Asia, and Europe have come on pilgrimage to Saint Jude Shrine to assist its faithful by offering the ancient and Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. The succession of Sunday Masses at Saint Jude Shrine has continued for the last 43 years, with only a single interruption during Hurricane Harvey, when area highways were impassable