St. Matthew

St. Matthew, also called Levi, was a tax collector at Capernaum, a despised profession among his people, when Jesus passed by and simply said, "Follow me." He rose at once, left his collector's table, and gave a banquet for the Lord at which Jesus scandalized the righteous by dining with tax collectors and sinners, declaring, "I came not to call the just, but sinners." Thus a man reckoned an outcast became one of the Twelve Apostles.

Christian tradition honors him as the author of the first Gospel, written especially for Jewish readers and setting forth Jesus as the promised Messiah who fulfills the Law and the Prophets. It is his Gospel that preserves the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes in their fullest form. Ancient accounts hold that he preached afterward in Judea and then abroad, in regions named as Ethiopia or Persia, where he died a martyr. He is celebrated on 21 September and is the patron of tax collectors, accountants, and bankers.