Apostle and Evangelist
Feast day February 24th

The first act of the apostles after the Ascension of Jesus was to find a replacement for Judas.

One hundred and twenty people were gathered for prayer and reflection in the upper room, when Peter stood up to propose the way to make the choice.

Peter had one criterion, that, like Andrew, James, John, and himself, the new apostle be someone who had been a disciple from the very beginning, from his baptism by John until the Ascension. The reason for this was simple, the new apostle would become a witness to Jesus' resurrection. He must have followed Jesus before anyone knew him, stayed with him when he made enemies, and believed in him when he spoke of the cross and of eating his body -- teachings that had made others drift away.

Two men fit this description -- Matthias and Joseph called Barsabbas. They knew that both these men had been with them and with Jesus through his whole ministry. They cast lots in order to discover God's will and Matthias was chosen. He was the twelfth apostle and the group was whole again.

That's the first we hear of Matthias in Scripture, and the last. Legends like the Acts of Andrew and Matthias testify to Matthias' enthusiastic embrace of all that being an apostle meant including evangelization, persecution, and death in the service of the Lord.

Legend has him preaching in Judea, Cappadocia, and on the shores of the Caspian Sea, where he endured great persecutions.

Its thought that he suffered martyrdom by being beheaded, perhaps at Colchis or Jerusalem. His alleged relics were removed by Empress Saint Helena and are now venerated at Saint Matthias's Abbey in Trier, Germany.

In our window, he is holding the Scriptures as he was a missionary, and we also see an ax (over his right shoulder).