149. Saint Matthew, c. 800 C.E.

Parchment, Albertina, Vienna. Romanesque.

 

 

One of the twelve apostles, and the traditional author of the First Gospel, where Matthew is described as having been a tax-gatherer or customs-officer, in the service of the tetrarch Herod. His call to become a follower of Jesus was received as he sat in the “customs house” in one of the towns by the Sea of Galilee. He was at the time known as “Levi the son of Alphaeus.” Possibly “Matthew” was his Christian surname, since two native names, neither being a patronymic, is contrary to Jewish usage. It must be noted, however, that Matthew and Levi were sometimes distinguished in early times. It has generally been supposed, on the strength of Luke’s account, that Matthew gave a feast in Jesus’ honour. But Mark, followed by Matthew, may mean that the meal in question was one in Jesus’ own home at Capernaum. In the lists of the Apostles given in the Synoptic Gospels and in Acts, Matthew ranks third or fourth in the second group of four—a fair index of his relative importance in the apostolic age. The only other facts related of Matthew on good authority concern him as an Evangelist. Eusebius says that he, like John, wrote only at the spur of necessity. “For Matthew, after preaching to Hebrews, when about to go also to others, committed to writing in his native tongue the Gospel that bears his name; and so by his writing supplied, for those whom he was leaving, the loss of his presence.” The value of this tradition, which may be based on Papias, who certainly reported that “Matthew compiled the Oracles (of the Lord) in Hebrew,” can be estimated only in connexion with the study of the Gospel itself. The earliest legend as to his later labours, one of Syrian origin, places them in the Parthian kingdom, where it represents him as dying a natural death at Hierapolis. This agrees with his legend as known to Ambrose and Paulinus of Nola, and is the most probably in itself. Another legend, his Martyrium, makes him labour and suffer in Mysore. He is commemorated as a martyr by the Greek Church on the 16th of November, and by the Roman on the 21st of September, the scene of his martyrdom being placed in Ethiopia. The Latin Breviary also affirms that his body was afterwards translated to Salerno, where it is said to lie in the church built by Robert Guiscard.