St. Matthew, Apostle

SAINT MATTHEW
Apostle († First Century)


St. Matthew, the holy Apostle and Evangelist, was born at Cana in Galilee, where our Lord wrought his first miracle, by changing water into wine. (And so we start out with an interesting fact.) He was a Galilean, a son of Alpheus (Mark ii. 14.), consequently a brother of St. James the Less, another of the Apostles.

One day, as Our Lord was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw, seated in his customs bureau, Levi the publican, whose business it was to collect the taxes from the people for their Roman masters. Jesus said to him: "Follow Me." Leaving all behind, Matthew arose and did so, thereby giving us all an example of the way in which we should respond to grace. The humble Matthew, as he was thereafter called, tells us himself in his Gospel that he was Levi, one of those publicans abhorred by the Jews as enemies of their country, outcasts and notorious sinners, who enriched themselves by extortion and fraud. No Pharisee would sit with one at table; Our Saviour alone had compassion for them.

Saint Matthew prepared a great feast, to which he invited Jesus and His disciples, with a number of these publicans, who thereupon began to listen to Him with attention and joy. It was there, in answer to the murmurs of the Pharisees saying that this 'pretended prophet' ate with publicans and sinners, that Jesus said, "They that are in good health have no need of a physician. I have not come to call the just, but sinners to penance."

Saints Hilary, Jerome and Bede understand these just to be the Pharisees, who pretended to be just in all things, and would not receive the call of Jesus, even if he had called them. Jesus, knowing this, he called those whom the Pharisees regarded very great sinners, and who, however, humbly heard and followed the call of Jesus. (There's that call for humbleness, again)

After the Ascension, Saint Matthew remained for over ten years in Judea, writing his Gospel there in about the year 44 ( His Gospel was written in Aramaic, the language that our Lord Himself spoke.), to teach his countrymen that the kingdom of heaven had already been instigated, for Jesus was their true Lord and the King foretold by the prophets. He departed then to preach the Faith in Egypt and especially in Ethiopia, where he remained for twenty-three years. When he resurrected the son of the Ethiopian king who had received him, the miracle brought about the conversion of the royal house and with them the entire province.


The king's daughter, Iphigenia, consecrated herself to God with several other maidens. When a young man, Hirtacus, wished to marry the beautiful Iphigenia, Saint Matthew invited him to come and listen to a discourse he was to make to that community of virgins, to hear what he would say to them. When the Apostle extolled the state of virginity, the suitor became enraged and arranged to have him slain as he came from the altar. St. Hippolyte calls St. Matthew the victim and martyr of holy virginity. He is called by the holy Fathers the victim of virginal purity, as he shed his blood in defending it. Hirtacus, after having been informed of the death of St. Matthew, hastened to the house where Iphigenia and the other virgins dwelt, and repeated his demand. When she once more courageously refused his hand, he commanded her house to be set on fire, and burned to the ground with all its inmates. His wicked design was, however, frustrated; for when the flames began to arise, St. Matthew appeared and warded them off in such a manner, that neither the house nor those within it were injured. Hirtacus was punished for his evil deeds with so terrible a leprosy, that, unable to endure the sight of himself, he died by his own hands. (Poor baby)


It is said in the Constitutions of Pope St. Clement that Saint Matthew instituted holy water, for protection of soul and body; the prayer he used for the purpose is reported in that document. The relics of St. Matthew were for many years in the city of Naddaver in Ethiopia, where he suffered his martyrdom, but were transferred to Salerno in the year 954, where they remained concealed in a cave, for protection, for over a hundred years.

Reflection: Obey all inspirations of Our Lord as promptly as St. Matthew, who, at a single word, St. Bridget says, "laid down the heavy burden of the world, to take the light and sweet yoke of Christ."


Prayer from the Liturgical Year, 1903

How pleasing must thy humility have been to our Lord; that humility which has raised thee so high in the kingdom of heaven, and which made thee, on earth, the confidant of Incarnate Wisdom. The Son of God, who hides His secrets from the wise and prudent and reveals them to little ones, renovated thy soul by intimacy with Himself, and filled it with the new wine of His heavenly doctrine. So fully didst thou understand His love, that He chose thee to be the first historian of his life on earth. The Man-God revealed Himself through thee to the Church. She has inherited thy glorious teaching; for the Synagogue refused to understand both the divine Master and the prophets His heralds.

There is one teaching, indeed, which not all, even of the elect, can understand and receive; just as in heaven not all follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, nor can all sing the new canticle reserved to those whose love here on earth has been undivided. O evangelist of holy virginity, and martyr for its sake! watch over the choicest portion of our Lord's flock. Remember also, O Levi, all those for whom, as thou tellest us, the Emmanuel received His beautiful name of Savior. The whole redeemed world honors thee and implores thy assistance. Thou hast recorded for us the admirable sermon on the mountain; by the path of virtue there traced out, lead us to that kingdom of heaven, which is the ever-recurring theme of thy inspired writing.

Levi, the tax collector who becomes St. Matthew, looks up from his table in the customs house—the Gospels tell the story—when Jesus signals him. That simple summons and the astonished response to it are dramatized in 'The Calling of Matthew', one of a trio of paintings by Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio after his native town. (As a note, he is my favorite artist. When you see the eyes of his paintings, and then walk across the room, the eyes seem to follow you. I love it!)




PRAYER OF THE CHURCH: Grant, O Lord, we may be aided by the prayers of blessed Matthew, the Apostle and Evangelist: that what we cannot obtain by our own weakness, may be granted us by his intercession.

(Ezech. i. 10 - 14.) The likeness of the four living creatures was this: there was the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side of all the four; and the face of an ox on the left side of all the four; and the face of an eagle over all the four. And their faces and their wings were stretched upward: two wings of every one were joined, and two covered their bodies. And every one of them went straight forward: whither the impulse of the spirit was to go, thither they went, and they turned not when they went. And as for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like that of burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps. This was the vision running to and fro in the midst of the living creatures, a bright fire, and lightning going forth from the fire. And the living creatures ran and returned like flashes of lightning.

EXPLANATION. The four living creatures who were Cherubim, that is, powers of heaven, many holy fathers understand to be emblems of the four Evangelists, as these represent Christ in His fourfold attributes of Man, King, Priest, and God. The emblem of man is given, therefore, to St. Matthew, because he relates the birth of Christ according to humanity; of a lion to St. Mark, because he describes Christ as King; of an ox who was slaughtered by the Jews as a sacrifice to St. Luke, because he represents Christ as High Priest who was Himself the sacrifice; of an eagle to St. John, because he soared like an eagle to the heavenly heights, and relates the divinity of Christ and His eternal origin.

Let us agree with heart and with lips to the sacred doctrines of the four Evangelists, and let us be staggered by nothing we find in their writings.