Matthias of Bethlehem in Judah (Saint Matthias)

The Apostle Matthias - Peter Paul Rubens

By his real name Tobie, he is a young shepherd from Bethlehem who witnesses the Nativity. He takes the name father Matthias's son, after the death of the latter during the massacre carried out by Herod the Great, later recounted to Jesus by traumatized witnesses.  

Matthias becomes a disciple of John the Baptist along with two other Nativity shepherds: John and Simeon.        

At the last meeting of the Baptist with Jesus in a cave at Enon, the forerunner commends them:

"In them [the shepherds] and especially in Matthias, Wisdom is truly present".

The Baptist, captured, is imprisoned in the fortress of Machaerus, near the Dead Sea. Thanks to Manaen, milk brother of Herod Antipas and disciple of the Baptist, Matthias serves in the castle kitchens.          

The circumstances of the beheading of the Baptist are reported to him by Selma, servant of Herodias: she witnessed the scene reported by the Gospels. With Simeon and John, Matthias collects the body of the prophet. They bury him and go to inform Jesus who welcomes them afterwards.

Matthias exerts influence over the other disciples: his wisdom and justice grant him a natural authority. He is counted among the seventy-two disciples before being elected apostle as a replacement for Judas. He is presented to this position at the same time as Joseph the Righteous, son of a Nativity shepherd massacred by Herod the Great.      

In accordance with the words of Peter in the Acts of the Apostles, Matthias was indeed "one of the men who have accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus lived among us, from his baptism by John until the day he was taken from us." He was indeed a witness: to the Nativity, to the Crucifixion, to the Resurrection and to the Ascension.      

He is present at Pentecost as the twelfth apostle: the first to be elected. He then enjoys the fullness of apostolic prerogatives and authority. Likewise, bishops, following him, continue the authority of Christ.

His name

Mattathias - Matthias - Matthew (סמתיא): come from the Hebrew "mattityah" gift of the Eternal - Historical reference: the father of the Maccabee brothers, liberators of Israel.

Where is he mentioned in the work?

EMV 30 EMV 75 EMV 81 EMV 89
EMV 127 EMV 148
EMV 270
EMV 404 EMV 405
EMV 526 EMV 538 EMV 574 EMV 596
EMV 608 EMV 609 EMV 623 EMV 624 EMV 626 EMV 636 EMV 638 EMV 639 EMV 640 EMV 641

Learn more about this character    

Excerpts from the Dictionary of Gospel Characters, according to Maria Valtorta (Mgr René Laurentin, François-Michel Debroise, Jean-François Lavère, Éditions Salvator, 2012) :

Saint Matthias is celebrated on May 14.      

According to doctor Johannes Sepp, Matthias, native of Bethlehem, was one of the young shepherds witness to the Nativity, before later becoming a disciple and apostle of Jesus. Before J. Sepp, Jacques de Voragine (13th century) upheld the tradition that he was "born in Bethlehem of an illustrious family."

Tradition holds him as the evangelizer of Egypt and Ethiopia. Returning to Judea, he was stoned and then beheaded in the year 63 (or 64). He was said to be 85 years old. He must have been in his twenties at the Nativity and in his fifties during the public life of Jesus.

According to Clement of Alexandria (2nd century), Matthias would have written a Book of Traditions.

Origen (2nd century) attributes to him a gospel now lost, but mentioned by Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, and the Venerable Bede. This document was classified among the apocrypha by Pope Gelasius in the 5th century.

Clement of Alexandria reports that, in his evangelization, he emphasized primarily the need to mortify the flesh by repressing the desires of sensuality; an important lesson he learned from Jesus Christ, and which he practiced himself. He quotes this maxim from him: "One must fight the flesh and fully tame it by refusing everything its disordered desires ask for. One must, on the contrary, strengthen and grow the soul, through faith and knowledge."  

Saint Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, brought his body back to Rome. She deposited part of his relics in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, and gave part of the remainder to Saint Agricius who placed them in the current Basilica of Saint Matthias in Trier. However, according to the Bollandists, the relics of Saint Mary Major should be attributed to another Saint Matthias, bishop of Jerusalem around the year 120.