Matthias was chosen by lot by the apostles to take the place of Judas Iscariot. According to Eusebius, he was one of the seventy disciples of the Lord. Everything recorded about his apostolic activity and martyrdom belongs to apocryphal literature. The Benedictine Abbey of Saint Matthias in Trier claims to possess the saint’s relics, but so do the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome and the Monastery of Santa Justina in Padua. The Eastern Churches celebrate the feast of Saint Matthias on different dates: March 4th for the Copts and August 9th for the Byzantines.
The document titled Notitia de locis sanctorum apostolorum at the head of the Hieronymian Martyrology places the feast of the apostle on February 24th, and this is the date adopted by the West, where the apostle’s feast did not begin to be generalized until a relatively late period: from the 9th century. Rome, always prudent and conservative, only admitted the feast from the 11th century.
The current calendar prefers to move away from the traditional date of February 24th, as it often falls during Lent, and sets the feast on May 14th; this way, Matthias is celebrated during the Easter season, not far from the solemnity of the Ascension, roughly coinciding with the historical date when the apostles chose him to fill the vacancy in the apostolic college.
