St. Matthew

St. Matthew was one of the Twelve Apostles and is honored as the author of the First Gospel. A first-century Jew of Galilee, he worked as a tax collector at Capernaum—a despised occupation, since publicans collected revenue for the occupying Roman power and were regarded as public sinners. The Gospels of Mark and Luke call him Levi, and the Gospel that bears his name recounts his call with striking brevity: Jesus saw him sitting at the customs post and said, 'Follow me,' and Matthew rose and followed him (Matthew 9:9). Matthew then hosted a banquet at which Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, provoking the Pharisees' complaint and the Lord's reply that he had come 'not to call the righteous, but sinners.' Numbered among the Twelve, Matthew accompanied Jesus through his public ministry, witnessed the Resurrection, and shared in the apostolic mission after Pentecost. From the second century, Christian writers beginning with Papias associated Matthew with the Gospel that stands first in the New Testament—a Gospel written for Jewish Christians, rich in citations of the Old Testament, and the source of some of the Church's most treasured texts, including the Sermon on the Mount. Of his later apostolate the historical record is thin: traditions variously send him to preach in Ethiopia, Persia, or Parthia, and the Roman Martyrology honors him as a martyr, though the circumstances of his death rest on legend rather than firm history. His feast is celebrated on September 21 in the West and November 16 in the East. Since the tenth century the cathedral of Salerno in southern Italy has claimed his relics, and its crypt remains a place of pilgrimage. Depicted in art with a winged man, the first of the four living creatures applied to the evangelists, Matthew is the patron of accountants, bankers, and tax collectors—those who share the trade from which Christ called him.