St. Matthew, Apostle, Evangelist

St . Matthew, Apostle, Evangelist - Feast Day September 21.

_____________________

 

___________________

 Matthew was a Galilean by birth, and a tax gatherer before his conversion, and was called Levi, but after his conversion changed his name to Matthew.

Together with Saint Mark, Saint Luke  and Saint John he is one of the four Evangelists.

In the Gospel he humbly relates the story of his conversion, and wrote his Gospel in Aramaic and it was afterwards translated into Greek, and the Aramaic text has since perished.

 

He gives the line of ancestors from whom Jesus descended as a man, and on this account is represented by the animal with a human face in the symbolical vision of Ezekial; little is known of his life; the Fathers in general say he died in Persia.

St. Paulinus of Nola, asserts that he died among the Parthinians.  When his remains were discovered at Velia and brought to the Cathedral of Salerno, Pope Gregory VII began his journey there but died on the way, and was buried near the tomb of St. Matthew.

___________________