Thomas Judge
| Father Thomas Augustine Judge | |
|---|---|
 Thomas Augustine Judge | |
| Birth | August 23, 1868 |
| Death | November 23, 1933 |
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Father Thomas Augustine Judge
Father Thomas Augustine Judge was a modern American apostle. Born August 23, 1868 in Boston, he was ordained a priest of the Congregation of the Mission in 1899. Soon after, he was sent to work in Alabama among the immigrant poor. Seeing the overwhelming task before him, and believing that everyone has a missionary role to perform, he asked for lay volunteers from the North to come and help him in his work.
The challenge he presented to these volunteers was not to become priests or Sisters, but to remain lay men and women who could go into the towns, homes, schools, and workplaces to help alleviate suffering among the materially poor and spiritually abandoned.
The lay apostolate soon created an organization of highly spiritualized men and women called the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate. This group exists today throughout the USA, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Costa Rica. From these ranks came two new missionary religious congregations, the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity (women) and the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity (men).
Father Judge was a tireless, buoyant missionary, leading with ardor, joy and brilliant faith. He lived a humble life, was intoxicated with God and His gifts, had unshakable confidence in the capacity of ordinary man and woman to love God a great deal. His desire was to lead them to that happiness, and to its natural consequence: a zeal to bring their neighbor closer to God. Father Judge died on November 23, 1933.
- Benson, J., Judgments of Fr. Judge, (N.Y.:l934).
- Carven J., "Son of St. Vincent," Vincentian Heritage 7 (l985), p. 241-247.
- O'Connor, D., "America's Pioneer in the Lay Apostolate: Thomas Augustine Judge, C.M.," Vincentian Heritage 7 (l985), p. 229-240.
- Portier, William L., Every Catholic An Apostle: A Life of Thomas A. Judge, CM, 1868–1933, (Washington DC: The Catholic University of America Press, (2018).
