Saint Matthew

Matthew was a publican, that is, a tax collector working for the Romans: the most despised job a Jew could have, because it meant working for the occupier and getting rich off your own people. His calling is told in three lines. Jesus passes by, sees him sitting at the tax booth, says to him “follow me,” and he gets up. Then Matthew invites him to dinner at his own house with his colleagues, and the Pharisees demand an explanation for that company; the answer is that it isn’t the healthy who need a doctor. In Mark and Luke the same man is called Levi, and he isn’t explicitly identified with the apostle Matthew — it’s one of the small open questions of the Gospels. Another, bigger one concerns the Gospel that bears his name. Today almost all scholars believe the apostle isn’t its author: that text depends on Mark, and an eyewitness wouldn’t have needed to copy from someone who wasn’t there. The evangelist remains unknown, and we go on calling him Matthew. Tradition sends him to preach in Ethiopia, where he is said to have died around the year 70. His symbol is the winged man, because his Gospel begins with Jesus’s human genealogy. He is the patron of bankers, accountants and financiers, because of the job he did before. His relics are in Salerno, in the Cathedral. If your name is Matthew, today is your name day.