A saint's day
St Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist
St Matthew, also called Levi, was a tax collector in Capernaum. When Jesus called him, “Follow Me,” he left everything at once, repaid fourfold anyone he had cheated and gave the rest to the poor. He wrote the first Gospel, which shows Jesus as the Messiah foretold by the prophets, and carried the Gospel as far as Ethiopia, where he ended his life as a martyr.
The dates
- Kept on
- 16 November (29 November on the Old Calendar)
- Next, New Calendar
- Next, Old Calendar
The New Calendar (the Greek, Antiochian, Romanian and Bulgarian churches, the OCA and most converts) keeps fixed feasts on the church date; the Old Calendar (the Russian, Serbian and Georgian churches, Jerusalem and Mount Athos) keeps them 13 days later. Pascha and the feasts that follow it are kept on the same day by both.
How the day is kept
Orthodox Christians honor him as a living icon of conversion and ask his prayers for the forgiveness of sins and true repentance. His patronage of accountants and bankers comes from the West.
He is remembered again with all the Twelve at the Synaxis of the Apostles, the day after the feast of Sts Peter and Paul.
Name days
These names keep their name day on this feast:
The saint
Icons for the feast
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