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Matthew, who also bore the name Levi, as mentioned in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, was a native of Galilee. As a tax collector for Herod, he was despised by his fellow Jews. When Christ called Matthew as a disciple, the publican hastened to host Our Lord at his house, inviting many friends and colleagues to the feast, that they might also hear Christ’s words. It was this feast that prompted the scorn of the Pharisees, who mocked Christ for dining with tax collectors and sinners. Matthew was the first of the Evangelists to write his Gospel, doing so in Hebrew for the new Jewish converts. St. Bartholomew carried a copy of this Gospel on his mission to India. For many years Matthew preached primarily to the south and east, and he eventually met his martyrdom in Ethiopia. One account asserts that he was killed at the altar, by order of a jealous king who was rebuked by Matthew for desiring after a consecrated virgin named Iphigenia. Matthew’s relics were eventually brought to Salerno, Italy, where they rest in the cathedral to this day. Matthew is a patron of accountants, bankers, and other related trades, and is invoked for help in all matters of money. His symbol as an Evangelist is the winged young man or angel.
THE birthday [into heaven] of St. Matthew, apostle and evangelist, who suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, while engaged in preaching. The Gospel written by him in Hebrew was, by his own revelation, found in the time of the emperor Zeno, together with the relics of the blessed apostle Barnabas.
In the land of Saar, the holy prophet Jonas, who was buried in Geth.
At Rome, St. Pamphilus, martyr.
At twenty miles from Rome, on the Claudian way, the martyrdom of St. Alexander, bishop, in the time of the emperor Antoninus. For the faith of Christ he was loaded with fetters, scourged, tortured, burned with torches, torn with iron hooks, exposed to the beasts and cast into the flames, but having overcome all these torments, he was finally beheaded, and so attained the glory of eternal life. His body was afterwards carried into the city by the blessed pope Damasus, on the 26th of November, on which day his feast is to be celebrated by order of the same Pontiff.
In Phoenicia, St. Eusebius, martyr, who, of his own accord, went to the prefect, and declaring himself a Christian, was subjected by him to many torments, and finally beheaded.
In Cyprus, St. Isacius, bishop and martyr.
In the same place, St. Meletius, bishop and confessor.
In Ethiopia, St. Iphigenia, virgin, who being baptized and consecrated to God by the blessed apostle Matthew, ended her holy life in peace.
℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
℟. Thanks be to God.