ST. MATTHEW, APOSTLE

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 37, 13 September 1900, Page 7

ST. MATTHEW, APOSTLE

Walking one day on the bank of Genesareth, Jesus beheld a man named Levi sitting at the Custom-house busy in the receipt of the public dues. Fixing His eyes upon him, and at the same time penetrating his soul with a secret inspiration. He said to him : ' Follow Me.' And at once Levi, rising from his desk and quitting all things, followed Jesus and was numbered with the twelve Apostles. This Levi, as he was then called, was no other than the Apostle St. Matthew, who in the Gospel which he afterwards wrote relates with great humility the history of his conversion. As the bnsiness of a publican, or public tax-gatherer, owing to the extortions commonly practised by these officials, was one which could hardly.be followed without sin, he abandoned at once his previous profession. In gratitude to his Divine Master for His gracious call, St. Matthew entertained Jesus and His disciples at a great banquet, to which he invited his friends and former companions. He desired, no doubt, to bring them under the influence of the Saviour of the World, and to promote as far as possible their conversion. The Pharisees murmured at the condescension of our Blessed Redeemer in sitting down to table with publicans and sinners. But Jesus answered them in these wise and gentle words : ' They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill. Go then and learn what this meaneth ; I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I have come not to call the just, but sinners.' The early Fathers tell us that after Our Lord's ascension St. Matthew for several years preached in Judpa and the neighboring countries. A short time before the dispersion of the Apostles ho wrote his Gospel for the instruction of his Jewish converts. It was written in the modern Hebrew then in use among the Jews, and the writer continually appeals to the prophecies of the Old Testament to prove that Jesus Christ was the long expected Messiah sent by God to redeem the world. After reaping an abundant harvest of souls in Judea, St. Matthew set out to preach the Gospel to tho barbarous and uncivilised nations of the East. Persia and the southern and eastern parts of Asia were henceforth the scene of his labors. But he preached not only by his words, but also by the powerful example of his holy and mortified life. His preaching, like that of the other apobtles, was accompanied with numerous miracles. Among these it is related that he raised to life Iphigenia, the daughter of an Eastern monarch, which miracle was followed by the conversion of her father and mother and the whole province to the faith of Christ. Upon the death of the king his fcucoessor sought the hand of the princess in marriage, but met with a refusal, for Bhe had vowed her virginity to God. Whereupon in his blind rage he ordered St. Matthew to be slain as he stood at the altar offering the Holy Sacrifice. His relics were afterwards brought to Salerno, in the south of Italy, where they have been preserved to this day with veneration. bT. THOMAS Or MLLAXOVA, AKCUBISUOP OF VALENCIA. St. Thomas of Villanova, po called from the place of his birth, was one of the glorious band of saints who adorned the Spanish Church during the sixteenth century, the era of the so-called Reformation. When but seven years of age it was his constant study to find some way of relieving the necessities of his beloved poor, and frequently did he deprive himself of a portion of his meals rather than that their wants bhould remain unsatisfied. After some time spent at bchool in Villanova, Thomas at the age of 15 was sent by his parents to pursue his studies at the university of Alcala. Here he remained for 1 1 years, distinguished among all his companions no less by his exemplary life and fervent piety than by his extraordinary talents and profound learning. After taking his degree of Master of Arts he taught philosophy for four years at Alcala and Salamanca, at the end of which time he took the habit of the hermits of St. Augustine about the very period that the heresiarch Luther apostatized from the same Order in Germany. After many years spent in the discharge of the most important duties of his Order, Thomas was nominated by the Emperor Charles V. to the Archbishopric of Valentia, having previously declined tho more important See of Granada. Being seized with a quinsy accompanied with fever in the month of August, A.D. loo."), he began at once to prepare himself for death. On the morning of the Nativity of Our Lady he felt his strength exhausted and ordered Mass to be celebrated in his presence, and at the moment of the priest's Communion, with these words ' Into Thy hands, O Lord. I commend my spirit,' he rendered his soul to God in the sixty-seventh year of his age and the eleventh of his Episcopate.