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Matthias, Feast of Saint

The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia

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Observed February 24. The only record we have of St. Matthias in the New Testament is that to be found in Acts I:15-26 where it is recorded that he was chosen to be an Apostle in the place of the traitor Judas. This passage is read for the Epistle for the Day. We have here the New Testament witness to the fact that the number of the Apostles was to be increased and the Apostleship perpetuated to the end of time by its being committed to others, as in the case of St. Paul and St. Barnabas apparently in the place of St. James who had been put to death by Herod, and of some other Apostle whose death is not recorded. According to the tradition of the Church, St. Matthias ministered for some years among the Jews; he then went to Cappadocia where he preached the Gospel and where he eventually suffered martyrdom, being stoned and afterwards beheaded about A.D. 64. In ecclesiastical art, St. Matthias is variously represented as bearing a halbert; leaning upon a sword; holding a sword by the point; with a lance, hatchet or axe; with a stone in his hand; with a carpenter's square; with a book and scimitar.