The Acts of the Apostles (1:15-26) tells us that Matthias was chosen after the resurrection to replace Judas. Peter, quoting a psalm, told the 120 people gathered that they must choose a new apostle: someone who had been with them from the time of the baptism of the Lord until the resurrection, someone who could join them in bearing witness to these events. Two names were put forward and the assembly casts lots, the lot falling to Matthias. Nothing more is known of his life or apostolic work.

~ According to one tradition, Saint Matthias preached for a time in Jerusalem and eventually he was stoned and beheaded. (He is often portrayed holding an axe, the instument of his death.) Another tradition claims he preached the Gospel to the barbarians and cannibals in the interior of Ethiopia and was crucified.

Saint Matthias is the patron of carpenters, tailors, those with smallpox, and in prayers for perseverence and for hope.

O God, who assigned Saint Matthias
a place in the college of Apostles,
grant us, through his intercession,
that rejoicing at how your love
has been allotted to us,
we may merit to be numbered
among the elect.

Amen.

(From Roman Missal Collect
for Feast of Saint Matthias)