7-Day Saint Jude Prayer Candle

Sinderella's note

Saint Jude is the patron of lost causes, which is what we call your situation now that we've all stopped pretending, bambina. The glass is tall, the wax is white, the flame is small and stubborn just like you. Set it on a saucer because it'll weep down the sides by Thursday. He listens to the ones nobody else will take a meeting with. Pour a glass. Sit. He's got you.

The long version

Saint Jude Thaddeus is the patron of *lost causes* and *situations beyond hope.* He's the one you light when the marriage isn't going to work, when the kid is in a bad way, when the diagnosis came back worse than expected. He's also — culturally — the patron of the *Cubs fans, the desperate, the drunk-dialing, the night-shift praying.* Italian-American Catholic and Latin American Catholic households both hold him in particular esteem. The 7-day glass-jar candle is the same form factor as the others (Anthony, Rita, Christopher) — Indio brand or equivalent, ~eight dollars, burns about a week. Sinderella often pairs Saint Jude with a glass of red and an honest hour of sitting with the thing you've been avoiding. The folk-Catholic tradition: *don't make him a deal you can't keep.* If you ask Saint Jude for something, you have to *do* the thing he asks back — usually some small act of grace toward someone else who's also in a lost-cause situation. The candle is most powerful at night, between 11pm and 3am — the impossible-causes hours.