Monday, May 14, 2012

Holy Apostle Matthias


Today is the feast day of Holy Apostle Matthias. I've never heard of him before today and in line with my endeavour to read about the saints as their feast days approach, I tried to find more about him on the web.

There seems to be very little written about him. He was born in Bethlehem and is of the tribe of Judah. He was a student of Simeon. He replaced Judas Iscariot as the twelfth apostle.

I did not find much more other than he may have authored some Gnostic Gospels (or more likely had a Gospel named after him). The Gospel of Matthias no longer exists but has shown up referenced in the writings of several prominent early Christians from Origen to Jerome.

Like many of the saints from this time period, he was also a martyr according to some accounts.

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