Saint Cleophas was one of the greatest brothers and husbands and fathers and grandfathers who has ever been in the history of the world. His brother was Saint Joseph, the virginal spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. His wife was Saint Mary of Cleophas, whose feast day is April 9. Three of his sons, Saint Simon, Saint James the Less, and Saint Jude — and two of his grandsons, Saint James the Greater and Saint John — were Apostles of Jesus. They are called in Holy Scripture, “the brethren of Our Lord.” His daughter, Mary Salome, the mother of Saint James the Greater and Saint John, is also a saint. Her feast day is October 22. Still another son Joseph Barsabas, who is called in Holy Scripture, “the Just,” and who was one of the two nominated to take the place of the traitorous Judas Iscariot, is a saint and has a feast day on July 20. Saint Cleophas was one of the two disciples Our Lord met on the road to Emmaus on the day of His Resurrection, as we are told in the Gospel of Saint Luke, Chapter 24.
Our Lord stopped to have supper with these two disciples. At the end of the meal Jesus blessed bread and gave them His Sacred Body to eat. And Saint Luke tells us that “they knew Him in the breaking of bread.” Saint Cleophas was murdered by the Jews in the very house in which he had been host to Our Lord on the first Easter Sunday.
Anonymous, Triptych with the Family of Saint Anne, Dutch, 1490s. Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten (source). Saint Cleophas is standing immediately to the right of Saint Anne, holding his spectacles!
See also: The Women, The Apostles, and the Tomb: Easter in Review
