MATTIA, APOSTLE (Μαθθίας is an abbreviation of the Hebrew Mattanjāh = “Gift of Jahweh”; also Ματθαθίας = Hebrew Mattithjāh; Syriac Tolmaj). — He took the place of Judas Iscariot. According to Eusebius (Hist. eccl., 1, 12), he was one of the 72 disciples. The Acta 1:15–26 relate that Peter proposed replacing Judas with one of those disciples who had associated with the Apostles during Jesus’ public ministry, beginning with the Baptism by John the Baptist and extending to the Ascension, so that he too might be able to become a “witness of the Resurrection.” Among the 120 who made up the Church of Jerusalem, two were proposed, certainly the most prominent: Joseph called Barsabas, surnamed “Justus,” and M. Since the apostle was to be chosen by Jesus, the Apostles turned to Him (Κύριας καρδιαγνώστης), asking Him to show which of the two was the chosen one by lot. M. was elected, and without any further formality was added to the apostolic College.
According to Heracleon, he died a natural death (in Clement of Alexandria, Strom., IV, 9; PG 8, 1281). According to Nicephorus (Hist. eccl., II, 40; PG 145, 862), he preached in Ethiopia, where he suffered martyrdom; according to others, in Judea, where he was stoned. The apocrypha have him preaching in the land of the anthropophagi, like Matthew and Andrew. It is not clear whether they confuse him with Matthew. The following apocryphal works exist: Acta Andreae et Matthiae in urbe anthropophagorum, the “Traditions,” and the “Gospel” of M. (v. sotto). Clement of Alexandria (Strom., III, 4; PG 8, 1131) reports an agraphon of M.: “One must fight one’s own flesh and treat it rigorously.”
His feast is celebrated on 24 (or 25) February. He is the patron of butchers
and engineers. His relics are preserved at S. Maria Maggiore in Rome and at Trier. In the Canon of the Mass he appears in the list of the Nobis quoque.
Some (A. Harnack, E. Hennecke) distinguish it; others (Th. Zahn, O. Bardenhewer) identify it with the Gnostic Traditions of Mattias (Παραθέσεις Μανθίου), composed in the 2nd century in Egypt and cited three times by Clement of Alexandria (Strom., II, 9, 45; III, 4, 26; VII, 13, 82), and with the Secret Discourses of Jesus to M., the apostle, possessed by the Basilidian leaders, of which (cf. Philosophonumena, VII, 20) only the quotations preserved in Clement of Alexandria survive.