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The saints

St. Matthias

He followed Jesus the whole time, unnoticed. Then he was chosen to be an apostle.

Feast: 14 May · 1st century · The early Church · Judea

Read the story 1 min read
Medieval painting of St. Matthias in a red cloak on a gold background, holding a green book.

Workshop of Simone Martini, 1317. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Matthias

The upper room, Jerusalem

After Judas died, Peter said someone had to take his place among the Twelve.1

It had to be someone who had been with them from John’s baptism to the Ascension.2

They prayed, cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias.

Patronage No official patronage we can cite yet. The Church remembers him as the apostle chosen to take the place of Judas.

01St. Matthias

Faithful in the background

Matthias is not named once in the Gospels, but he was there the whole way.3

02St. Matthias

An apostle

After that we hear nothing more of him in Scripture, and later traditions about his mission and martyrdom differ.3

Live it this week

Be faithful where no one sees

Matthias followed Jesus for years with no mention at all. This week, do one good thing every day that nobody will ever know about, and don’t tell anyone.

Notes

How we know · 3 sources for this page
  1. Acts 1:21, World English Bible. read the chapter
  2. Acts 1:22, World English Bible. read the chapter
  3. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Matthias”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.