Saint of the Day - St. Matthew the Apostle (September 21st)
Channel: House of Prayers for Everyone (HOPE)
Date: 20/09/2023

Saint Matthew the Apostle was one of the four Evangelists and chronicled the life and ministry of Christ in his Gospel. The Church celebrates his feast day every September 21st.

Early Life

Relatively little is known about the life of Matthew before he was called by Jesus to become one of his 12 disciples. As mentioned in Matthew 9:9,

9 And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him.

It is believed that Jewish publicans who collected taxes on behalf of the Roman rulers were objects of scorn and even hatred among their own communities since they worked on behalf of the occupying power and often earned their living by collecting more than the state's due.

Disciple of Jesus

Matthew's calling into Jesus' inner circle was a truthful gesture of the Messiah's mission, causing some religious authorities of the Jewish community to wonder: 

10 And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.

11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?

12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Matthew's Gospel

A witness to Christ's resurrection after death and His ascension into heaven, Matthew also recorded Jesus' instruction for the apostles,

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Death and Veneration

Matthew is traditionally believed to have died as a martyr while preaching the Gospel, like most of the 12 Apostles. The Roman Martyrology describes his death as occurring in a territory near present-day Egypt.

Most modern scholars hold that the Gospel of Matthew was written anonymously, and not by Matthew. The author is not named within the text, and scholars have proposed that the superscription "according to Matthew" was added sometime in the second century.

Also, St. Matthew and his Gospel are said to have inspired important works of religious art, ranging from the ornate illuminated pages of the Book of Kells in the ninth century, to the Saint Matthew Passion of J.S. Bach. Three famous paintings of Caravaggio, depicting St. Matthew's calling, inspiration, and martyrdom, hang within the Contarelli Chapel in Rome's Church of St. Louis of the French.

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Images attributed to the following:
- By Caravaggio - Self-scanned, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
- By Peter Paul Rubens - http://www.artbible.info/art/topics/rubens-apostles-series, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
- By Rembrandt - Web Gallery of Art:   Image  Info about artwork, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons