An Apostle of Jesus Christ, Saint Matthias is one of the Blessed choir which the Church would have us honour during the Season of Septuagesima. Matthias was one of the first to follow our Saviour, and he was an eye-witness of all His divine actions up to the very day of the Ascension. He was one of the seventy-two Disciples, but our Lord had not conferred on him the dignity of an Apostle. And yet, he was to have this great glory, for it was of him that David spoke when he prophesied that another should take the bishopric (Psalm cviii. 8; Acts i. 16) left vacant by the apostasy of Judas the Traitor. In the interval between Jesus’ Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Apostolic College had to complete the mystic number fixed by our Lord Himself, so that there might be “The Twelve” on that solemn day when the Church, filled with the Holy Ghost, was to manifest herself to the Synagogue. The lot fell on Matthias (Acts i.). He shared with his Brother-Apostles in the Jerusalem persecution and, when the time came for the Ambassadors of Christ to separate, he set out for the countries allotted to him. Tradition tells us that these were Cappadocia and the provinces bordering on the Caspian Sea.
The virtues, labours and sufferings of Saint Matthias have not been handed down to us: this explains there being no proper Lessons on his Life, as there are for the Feasts of the rest of the Apostles. Clement of Alexandria records in his writings several sayings of our holy Apostle. One of these is so very appropriate to the spirit of the present Season that we consider it a duty to quote it. “It behoves us to combat the flesh and make use of it without pampering it by unlawful gratifications. As to the soul, we must develop her power by faith and knowledge.” How profound is the teaching contained in these few words! Sin has deranged the order which the Creator had established. It gave the outward man such a tendency to grovel in things which degrade him that the only means left us for the restoration of the likeness and image of God to which we were created is the forcibly subjecting the body to the spirit. But the spirit itself, that is, the soul, was also impaired by Original Sin and her inclinations were made prone to evil: what is to be her protection? Faith and knowledge. Faith humbles her, and then exalts and rewards her, and the reward is knowledge. Here we have a summary of what the Church teaches us during the two Seasons of Septuagesima and Lent. Let us thank the holy Apostle, in this his Feast, for leaving us such a lesson of spiritual wisdom and fortitude. The same traditions, which give us some slight information regarding the holy life of Saint Matthias, tell us that his Apostolic labours were crowned with the palm of martyrdom.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Rome, St. Primitiva, martyr.
At Caesarea in Cappadocia, St. Sergius, martyr, of whose life a beautiful account still exists.
In Africa, the holy martyrs Montanus, Lucius, Julian, Victoricus, Flavian and their companions. They were disciples of St. Cyprian and suffered martyrdom under the emperor Valerian.
At Rouen, the passion of St. Prætextatus, bishop and martyr.
At Treves, St. Modestus, bishop and confessor.
In England, St. Ethelbert, king of Kent, converted to the faith of Christ by St. Augustine, bishop of the English.
At Jerusalem, the first finding of the head of Our Lord’s Precursor.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
