St. Matthew, apostle and evangelist.

Holiday: September 21

† After 42 Parthia, Mesopotamia (?)

Meaning of the name: Man of God (from Hebrew)

Attributes: book of gospels, man, angel, sword, wallet

Patron of bankers, taxi drivers

St. Matthew is one of the twelve apostles. His original name was Levi. He was a toll collector, a tax collector, or a publican in the time of Jesus. He belonged to a group of people that the Jews despised, calling them public sinners (publicans). In addition to collecting customs duties, they “earned extra” by robbing. Levi had his toll-house in Capernaum, where Jesus often publicly appeared. So, it is likely that he heard many of his speeches. On one occasion—it was right after Jesus had healed a sick man who had been let down through the roof—Jesus saw him sitting at the toll booth, and he called him, and Levi immediately followed him. When he was then criticized for eating and walking with sinners, he said: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” And so Levi stayed with Jesus, never to leave him again. He became the apostle of Matthew and wrote the first of the four Gospels. It follows that he had a sense of higher things and that he was not wholly immersed in money and material.

What Matthew did and where he moved after Jesus’ death and resurrection is not recorded in any reliable source. Tradition says he preached the gospel in Persia, Parthia, Arabia, and Ethiopia. The date and place of his death are also unknown. Most authors claim that he died in Ethiopia, having been assassinated by the Ethiopian king Hyrtakus. This happened because Iphigenia, the king’s niece, converted to Christianity thanks to Matthew’s preaching and did not want to become the king’s wife because she had taken a vow of virginity. So, the king’s fury 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 built there by Pope Gregory VII. The symbol of the evangelist Matthew is the book of the gospels and the figure of a man – this is because he begins his gospel with the genealogy of Jesus Christ