Red-Letter Day
Apostle
February 24
also known as Matthias, Matthaeus
Matthias the Apostle, chosen after the Ascension to fill the place left vacant by Judas Iscariot and numbered among the Twelve at Pentecost. His selection in Acts 1 is the sole canonical record of his life; the church remembers him as a faithful apostle whose obscurity in the New Testament is itself part of his witness.
In the days between the Ascension and Pentecost, about a hundred and twenty believers gathered in Jerusalem and waited. They had seen the Lord taken up; they had heard him promise the gift the Father would send; and they prayed.
Peter stood up among them. Judas, who had walked with Jesus through Galilee and Judea, who had heard the Sermon on the Mount and stood at the raising of Lazarus, had betrayed the Lord and was gone. His place among the Twelve was empty. Peter named what kind of man could fill it: one of those who had been with them "from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up" from them, so that he might "become with us a witness to his resurrection" (Acts 1:21-22 ESV).
Two men in the room met the criterion. One was Joseph called Barsabbas, surnamed Justus; the other was Matthias. Both had walked with the Lord through Galilee and Judea; both had stood within the company of disciples on the resurrection morning and on the day of his Ascension.
The gathered church prayed. "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place" (Acts 1:24-25 ESV). It is the prayer the church has prayed at every ordination since: God knows the hearts; the church asks God to show.
They cast lots, by the ancient custom Israel had used to discern the Lord's will from the days of Joshua and Samuel. "The lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles" (Acts 1:26 ESV). Then Pentecost came, and the Holy Spirit was poured out, and Matthias stood with the Twelve when the church was born.
After that, the New Testament is silent. He is named in the apostolic list at the beginning of Acts and not named again. The church has always known what the silence means: the apostles went out into every quarter where the Lord sent them, and they preached, suffered, and died. Matthias preached too. The tradition the church received and remembered places his labor in Judea and his end as a martyr's. Some said he was stoned, some that he was beheaded; the medieval church at Trier kept his bones and called his shrine the only apostolic tomb north of the Alps.
Matthias had walked with Jesus from the baptism of John to the day of the Ascension before anyone thought to count him. He was faithful in obscurity first; the lot only revealed what was already there. And after his choosing, Scripture never names him again: he took his place, preached, and gave his life, and the record fell silent. Much of your own faithfulness will go unrecorded too, and God, who knows the hearts of all, does not need the record. Are you willing to be faithful where no one is keeping account, and leave the outcome to the Lord who knows your heart?
The sole canonical witness to Matthias is Acts 1:13 (where he is named in the apostolic list after Pentecost) and Acts 1:15-26 (the selection narrative). Outside the New Testament the record is thin and consists of brief patristic notices, two short collections of attributed sayings preserved as fragments in Clement of Alexandria, and a body of later medieval expansions. There is no early vita of Matthias comparable to the accounts the church kept of Peter, John, Thomas, or Andrew.
Patristic notices. Eusebius of Caesarea, writing in the early fourth century, names Matthias twice in his Ecclesiastical History. In Book 1 he identifies Matthias as one of the Seventy whom the Lord had sent out (Luke 10), promoted to the Twelve after the Ascension (EH 1.12.3, in McGiffert's translation in NPNF). In Book 3 he lists a Gospel of Matthias among the writings the church had rejected as not apostolic (EH 3.25.6, in the same translation). The Gospel of Matthias itself does not survive; only the notice of its rejection.
Clement of Alexandria, a generation earlier, quotes approvingly from what he calls the Traditions of Matthias (Greek Paradoseis), a short collection of moral sayings circulated under the apostle's name. In Stromata 2.9, in the Roberts and Donaldson rendering in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Clement attributes to this source a saying urging the believer to wonder at what stands before him as the first step of knowledge, and a counsel on disciplining the flesh as a help to the soul (Stromata 2.9, ANF). Further fragments appear in Stromata 4.6 and 7.13. Whether the sayings are authentically Matthias's or were composed in Alexandria and ascribed to him is contested. Clement received them as sayings from the apostolic memory; Eusebius later treated the related Gospel as spurious. Both notices stand together in the record.
Hippolytus of Rome, in the short patristic catalogue On the Twelve Apostles attributed to him, assigns Matthias's preaching to Judea and reports that he died in Jerusalem. The catalogue is brief and stylized, and its attribution to Hippolytus is itself questioned, but it preserves what the early church remembered as the field of Matthias's labor.
A Greek apocryphal narrative, the , makes Matthias the apostle who is kidnapped in a city of man-eaters and rescued by Andrew. The text dates from the fourth or fifth century and is a hagiographic romance, not an early witness; it belongs to a family of apocryphal acts of the apostles whose interest is theological and narrative rather than historical. A Latin circulated in the medieval west and is the basis of the Trier tradition that received Matthias's relics. The Trier translation of his bones in 1127, and the building of the Abbey of St. Matthias, are the load-bearing cult events for the western devotion to him.
Feast day. February 24 in the western kalendar (transferred to February 25 in leap years per the ACNA convention); August 9 in the Greek east. The 1969 Roman revision moved the feast to May 14, but the older date persists in Anglican and pre-conciliar Roman use.
Trier pilgrimage. The Abbey of St. Matthias at Trier kept his relics from the late patristic period; after the translation of his bones in 1127 it was called the only apostolic tomb north of the Alps, and pilgrims walked the Matthiasweg to it from across German-speaking Europe.
Weather lore. In Holstein and the German north, February 24 was kept as Mattheis-Tag with the proverb Matthias bricht das Eis, hat er keins, so macht er eins ("Matthias breaks the ice; if he finds none, he makes some"). The day was felt as the hinge of late winter.
Patronages. Carpenters, tailors, alcoholics in recovery, those afflicted by smallpox, and hope and perseverance under the lot.
Traditions of Matthias (fragments)(Greek, late 1st to early 2nd c. (attributed; preserved in Clement, late 2nd c.))
A short collection of moral sayings attributed to Matthias and quoted approvingly by Clement of Alexandria; surviving only as fragments embedded in Stromata 2.9, 4.6, and 7.13.
Public domain: CCEL - Clement, Stromata 2.9 (ANF 2)
Gospel of Matthias (lost)(Greek, 2nd c. (lost; known from Eusebius's notice))
A second-century work circulated under Matthias's name and listed by Eusebius among the writings the church rejected as not apostolic; the text itself does not survive.
Public domain: CCEL - Eusebius, EH 3.25.6 (NPNF2 1, the rejection notice)
Acts of Andrew and Matthias among the Cannibals(Greek, 4th to 5th c.)
A late-patristic Greek hagiographic romance pairing Andrew and Matthias; a believing-tradition reception of the apostles in narrative form rather than an early historical witness, and best read as such.
Public domain: CCEL - ANF vol. 8 (apocryphal acts)
Passio Matthiae(Latin, medieval (underlies the Trier cult))
The medieval Latin passion that underlies the Trier translation of Matthias's relics in 1127 and the western cult; not yet in a free critical edition online and best approached through scholarly summaries.
The Message of Acts (The Bible Speaks Today)(English, 1990)
John R. W. Stott's plainspoken believing-tradition exposition of Acts; the volume to pray with on the selection of Matthias and the first book to put in a thoughtful parishioner's hand.
The Fate of the Apostles(English, 2015)
Sean McDowell's believing-register survey of the martyrdom traditions for each of the Twelve; his chapter on Matthias is the most thorough single treatment in print of what can responsibly be said about his death.
Primary canonical source. Acts 1:13 ESV names Matthias in the apostolic list; Acts 1:15-26 ESV is the selection narrative and the sole canonical record of his life. The biblical-theology backdrop of the lot is Proverbs 16:33 ESV.
Patristic notices. Summarized in the History section, with links: Eusebius, EH 1.12.3 and EH 3.25.6 (NPNF, McGiffert); Clement, Stromata 2.9 and Stromata 4.6, 7.13 (ANF, Roberts and Donaldson); Hippolytus of Rome (so attributed), On the Twelve Apostles (ANF vol. 5).
Principal hagiography. The Greek Acts of Andrew and Matthias among the Cannibals (ANF vol. 8) and the medieval Latin Passio Matthiae; both are catalogued as primary-hagiography entries in the Works panel above.
Recommended modern works. Matthias has no in-print modern biography devoted to him alone; the honest pastoral recommendation routes the reader to a strong Acts commentary and to a recent survey of the apostolic martyrdoms.
John R. W. Stott's The Message of Acts (Bible Speaks Today, IVP, 1990) is the book to put in a thoughtful parishioner's hand: plainspoken believing exposition of the selection narrative as the church discerning the Lord's choice through prayer.
Sean McDowell's The Fate of the Apostles (Routledge, 2015) is the deeper pick: a believing-register survey of the martyrdom traditions for each of the Twelve, with the fullest single chapter in print on Matthias.
Further reading. John Foxe on Matthias in the Book of Martyrs (a popular tradition source, not a critical one) is at .
Matthias in Hebrew is as much to say as given to our Lord, or a gift of our Lord, or else humble or little. For he was given of our Lord when he was chosen from the world, and was set and entered among the seventy-two disciples, he was also given of our Lord when he was chosen by lot and numbered among the apostles. He was little for he had all very meekness in him and humility. There be three manners of humilities, as S. Ambrose says that: The first is of the affliction by which a man is made humble; the second is consideration of himself, and the third is of the devotion which is of the knowledge of his maker. S. Matthias had the first in suffering martyrdom, the second was in despising himself, and he had the third in amarvelling the majesty of our Lord. For Matthias is said as doing good for evil, for he being good was set in the place of Judas the traitor. And his life is read in holy church, and Bede writes it as many holy men bear witness.
Of S. Matthias.
S. Matthias the apostle was in the place of Judas the traitor, and therefore first we shall rehearse here the birth and beginning of Judas. It is read in a history, though it be named apocrypha, that there was a man in Jerusalem named Reuben, and by another named Simeon, of the kindred of David, or, after S. Jerome, of the tribe of Issachar, which had a wife named Ciborea, and on the night that Judas was conceived his mother had a marvellous dream whereof she was so sore afeard. For her seemed that she had conceived a child that should destroy their people, and because of the loss of all their people her husband blamed her much, and said to her: You say a thing over evil, or the devils will deceive you. She said: Certainly if so be that I shall have a son, I trow it shall be so, as I have had a revelation and none illusion. When the child was born the father and mother were in great doubt, and thought what was best to do, for they durst not slay the child for the horror that they should have therein, neither they knew not how they might nourish one that should destroy their lineage. Then they put him to a little fiscelle or basket well pitched, and set it in the sea, and abandoned him to drive whither it would. And anon the floods and waves of the sea brought and made him arrive in an island named Scarioth, and of this name was he called Judas Scariotes. Now it happed that the queen of this country went for to play on the rivage of the sea, and beheld this little nacelle and the child therein, which was fair, and then she sighed and said: O Lord God, how should I be eased if I had such a child, then at the least should not my realm be without heir. Then commanded she that the child should be taken up, and be nourished, and she fained herself to be great with child and after published that she had borne a fair son. When her husband heard say hereof he had great joy, and all the people of the country made great feast. The king and queen did do nourish and keep this child like the son of a king. Anon after, it happed that the queen conceived a son, and when it was born and grown Judas beat oft that child, for he weened that he had been his brotber, and oft he was chastised therefore, but alway he made him to weep so long that the queen which knew well that Judas was not her son, and at the last she said the truth, and told how that Judas was found in the sea. And ere this yet was known Judas slew the child that he had supposed to be his brother, and was son to the king, and in eschewing the sentence of death he fled anon and came into Jerusalem, and entered into the court of Pilate which then was provost. And he so pleased him that he was great with him, and had in great cherety and nothing was done without him.
Now it happed on a day that Pilate went for to disport him by a garden belonging to the father of Judas, and was so desirous to eat of the fruit of the apples that he might not forbear them. And the father of Judas knew not Judas his son, for he supposed that he had been drowned in the sea long tofore, ne the son knew not the father. When Pilate had told to Judas of his desire, he sprang into the garden of his father and gathered of the fruit for to bear to his master, but the father of Judas defended him, and there began between them much strife and debate, first by words and after with fighting, so much that Judas smote his father with a stone on the head that he slew him, and after brought the apples unto Pilate, and told to him how that he had slain him that owned the garden. Then sent Pilate to seize all the good that the father of Judas had, and after gave his wife to Judas in marriage, and thus Judas wedded his own mother.
Now it happed on a day that the lady wept and sighed much strongly and said: Alas! how unhappy that I am! I have lost my son and my husband. My son was laid on the sea, and I suppose that he be drowned, and my husband is dead suddenly, and yet it is more grievous to me that Pilate has remarried me against my will. Then demanded Judas of this child, and she told him how he was set in the sea, and Judas told to her how he had been found in the sea, in such wise that she knew that she was his mother, and that he had slain his father and wedded his mother. Wherefore then he went to Jesu Christ, which did so many miracles, and prayed him of mercy and forgiveness of his sins. Thus far it is read in the history which is not authentic.
Our Lord made Judas one of his apostles and retained him in his company, and was so privy with him that he was made his procurator, and bare the purse for all the other, and stole of that which was given to Christ. Then it happed that he was sorry and angry for the ointment that Mary Magdalene poured on the head and feet of our Lord Jesu Christ and said that it was worth three hundred pence, and said that so much he had lost, and therefore sold he Jesu Christ for thirty pence of that money usual, of which every penny was worth ten pence, and so he recovered three hundred pence. Or after that some say that he ought to have of all the gifts that was given to Jesu Christ the tenth penny, and so he recovered thirty pence of that he sold him, and nevertheless at the last he brought them again to the temple, and after hung himself in despair, and his body opened and cleft asunder and his bowels fell out. And so it appertained well that it should so be, for the mouth which God had kissed ought not to be defouled in touching, and also he ought not to die on the earth because all earthly creatures ought to hate him, but in the air where devils and wicked spirits be, because he had deserved to be in their company.
Then when the time came between the Ascension and Whitsuntide, S. Peter beheld that the number of the apostles was minished, he arose up in the middle of the disciples and said: Fair brethren, you know how our Lord Jesu Christ had chosen twelve men for to bear witness of his resurrection, and Judas was gone the evil way, it behoves to accomplish the number of twelve of such as have been with him. And sith they chose two of them that were there, that one was named Joseph surnamed Justus, and that other was Matthias. And then they made their orisons and said: Lord God, which knows the hearts of all the persons, show to us whom we shall choose of these twain here. And after, they cast lots, and the lot fell on Matthias, which forthwith was enumbered with the other eleven, and then were they twelve. But the holy S. Denis says that the lot was a ray and a shining which came and shone upon him. And anon he began to preach, and had his predication about Jerusalem, and was much virtuous, and did many miracles as is written of him, of whom the legend follows, which legend is found at Treves in Almaine. S. Matthias which was set in the place of Judas was born in Bethlehem of the tribe of Judah. He was set to school and in a little time he learned all the science of the law and of the prophets; he was afeard of fleshly lusts, and he passed his youth in good manners. His courage was inclined to all virtues, for he was humble and debonair, and alway ready to do mercy, and was not proud in prosperity, ne frail in adversity. He did that which he preached, he made the blind to see and healed the sick men, he raised the dead men, and did great miracles in the name of Jesu Christ. And when he was accused hereof tofore the bishop of Jerusalem, it was demanded him that he should answer thereto and he said: It behoves not much to answer hereto, because for to be a christian man it is nothing criminal but it is a glorious life. Then said the bishop that he would spare him and give him respite to repent him, and S. Matthias answered: God forbid that I should repent of the truth that I have truly found, and become an apostate. He was firm in the love of God, and clean of his body, and wise in speaking of all the questions of scripture, and when he preached the word of God many believed in Jesu Christ by his predication. The Jews took him and brought him to justice and had gotten two false witnesses against him and for to accuse him, the which cast on him first stones, and the other after, and so was stoned, and he prayed that the stones might be buried that the false witnesses had cast upon him, for to bear witness against them that stoned him, and finally he was slain with an axe after the manner of the Romans. And he held up his hands and commended his spirit to God. And after it is said that his body was brought to Rome, and from Rome it was translated to Treves. Another legend says that his body lies at Rome, and buried under a stone of porphyry in the church of S. Mary the major.
Of S.
What can be said. The canonical text, the patristic notices, and the apostolic catalogues together establish that Matthias was chosen to the Twelve, that he was remembered as preaching in Judea and as dying a martyr's death, and that a small body of moral sayings circulated under his name in Alexandria by the late second century. Beyond this the record does not extend. Modern historical scholarship treats the apocryphal acts as later legend, treats the Gospel of Matthias as lost beyond recovery, and divides on the authenticity of the Clementine fragments. The church's reading has held the selection of Matthias as the act of the risen Lord, the silence that follows as the silence of faithful work done, and the martyrdom as the seal of his apostolic witness.
Almighty God, who in the place of Judas chose your faithful servant Matthias to be numbered among the Twelve: Grant that your Church, being delivered from false apostles, may always be guided and governed by faithful and true pastors; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Acts 1:15–26Psalm 15Philippians 3:12–21John 15:1–16