October 28th is the Feast Day of 2 Apostles, St. Thaddeus and St. Simon, who preached throughout modern day Iran in the year 66 AD. After refusing to offer a sacrifice to a local pagan deity, the two apostles instead exorcised demons from the temple in which this diety was worshiped. This enraged the local rulers, who in turn stirred up a mob to kill the two men. As the crowd converged on the two apostles, St. Thaddeus turned to St. Simon and remarked “I see that the Lord is calling us.” They were both pelted with stones. A man with a spear came up to St. Thaddeus and ran him through, and St. Simon was seized and sawed in half.
St. Thaddeus became known as the patron saint of lost causes, desperate situations, and hospitals.
St. Simon became the patron saint of sawyers, and he shares the patronage of curriers and leather tanners with St. Bartholomew, who was skinned alive.