According to Acts 1: 15-17, 20-26 , St. Matthias was
the apostle chosen by the remaining eleven apostles to
replace Judas Iscariot following Judas' betrayal of Jesus.
In the days following the Ascension of Jesus, Peter
proposed to the assembled disciples, who numbered
about one hundred and twenty, that they choose one to
fill the place of the traitor Judas in the apostolate:
So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas,
(also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed,
"Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of
these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic
ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs." Then
they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was
added to the eleven apostles.
According to Nicephorus (Historia eccl., 2, 40),
Matthias first preached the Gospel in Judaea, then in
Aethiopia (made out to be a synonym for the region of
Colchis, now in modern-day Georgia) and was crucified
in Colchis. A marker placed in the ruins of the Roman
fortress at Gonio (Apsaros) in the modern Georgian
region of Adiara claims that Matthias is buried at that
site.
Alternately, another tradition maintains that Matthias
was stoned at Jerusalem by the Jews, and then
beheaded (cf. Tilleemont, Mémoires pour servir à
l'histoire ecclesiastique des six premiers siècles, I, 406-
7). According to Hippolytus of Rome, Hippolytus,
Matthias died of old age in Jerusalem.
Clement of Alexandria observed (Stromateis vi.13.):
Not that they became apostles through being chosen for
some distinguished peculiarity of nature, since also
Judas was chosen along with them. But they were
capable of becoming apostles on being chosen by Him
who foresees even ultimate issues. Matthias,
accordingly, who was not chosen along with them, on
showing himself worthy of becoming an apostle, is
substituted for Judas suicide.
The feast of Saint Matthias was included in the Roman
Calendar in the eleventh century and celebrated on the
sixth day to the Calends of March (February 24 usually,
but February 25 in leap years). Owing to the reform of
the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints in 1969, his feast
was transferred to May 14, so as not to celebrate it in
Lent but instead in Easter close to the Solemnity of the
Ascension, the event after which the Acts of the Apostles
recounts that Matthias was selected to be ranked with
the Twelve Apostles.
It is claimed that St Matthias the Apostle's remains are
interred in the abbey of St. Matthias, Trier, Germany,
brought there through Empress Helena of
Constantinople, mother of Emperor Constantine I (the
Great). According to Greek sources, the remains of the
apostle are buried in the castle of Gonio-Apsaros,
Georgia.
(d. 80)