Today, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Matthew, an apostle of the Lord.

Saint Matthew, whose name means ‘god’s gift.’ The first canonical Gospel, which goes under his name, presents him to us in the list of the Twelve, labeled very precisely: “the tax collector” (Mt 10: 3). Thus, Matthew is identified with the man sitting at the tax office whom Jesus calls to follow him: “As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, “Follow me. And he rose and followed him” (Mt 9: 9). Mark (cf. 2: 13-17) and Luke (cf. 5: 27-30), also tell of the calling of the man sitting at the tax office, but they call him “Levi”.

It is possible to deduce from this that Matthew exercised the function of tax collector at Capernaum, which was exactly located “by the sea“ (Mt 4: 13), where Jesus was a permanent guest at Peter’s house.

The tradition of the ancient Church agrees in attributing to Matthew the paternity of the First Gospel. The Gospel of Matthew written in Hebrew or Aramaic is no longer extant, but in the Greek Gospel that we possess we still continue to hear, in a certain way, the persuasive voice of the publican Matthew, who, having become an Apostle, continues to proclaim God’s saving mercy to us.

Like the other evangelists, Matthew is often depicted in Christian art with one of the four living creatures of Revelation 4:7. The one that accompanies him is in the form of a winged man.

The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church each hold the tradition that Matthew died as a martyr.