Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle, and Evangelist

Meaning of the name: a man of God (from Hebrew)

Attributes: book of the gospels, man, angel, sword, purse

Patron of bankers, taxi drivers

Matthew, a Greek icon
St. Matthew is one of the twelve apostles. His original name was Levi. He was a toll collector, that is, a tax collector or tax collector in the time of Jesus. He belonged to a group of people despised by the Jews, called public sinners (publicans). In addition to collecting customs duties, they “made a living” by stealing. Levi had his tax collector in Capernaum, where Jesus often made public appearances. It is likely, therefore, that he heard many of his discourses. On one occasion, just after Jesus had healed a sick man who had been lowered through the roof, Jesus saw him sitting at the toll booth, then He called him, and Levi immediately followed. When he was then criticized for eating and walking with sinners, he said: “It is not healthy who need a physician, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” And so Levi stayed with Jesus, never to leave him again. He became the Apostle Matthew and wrote the first of the four Gospels. This shows that he had a sense of higher things and was not totally immersed in money and matter.

What Matthew did and where he was after the death and resurrection of Jesus is not recorded in any authoritative source. Tradition has it that he preached the gospel in Persia, Parthia, Arabia, and Ethiopia. The date and place of his death are also unknown. Most writers say he died in Ethiopia and had him assassinated by the Ethiopian king Hyrtakus. This happened because Iphigenia, the king’s niece, had converted to Christianity due to Matthew’s preaching. She did not want to become the king’s wife because she had taken a vow of virginity. Thus, the king’s fury was turned against Matthew. Matthew’s remains were discovered in 1080 in Salerno in southern Italy. It is not known how they got there. They were placed in the temple that Pope Gregory VII had built there. The symbol of Matthew the Evangelist is the Book of the Gospels and the figure of a man because he begins his Gospel with the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

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