The Feast of St. Matthias

 

It's the Feast of St. Mathias the Apostle today. Here's the Collect:

O ALMIGHTY God, who into the place of the traitor Judas didst choose thy faithful servant Matthias to be of the number of the twelve Apostles; Grant that thy Church, being alway preserved from false Apostles, may be ordered and guided by faithful and true pastors; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Clement of Alexandria says this:

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.

Apocryphal tradition tells us that the Apostle preached the Gospel amongst the cannibals of Aethiopia (latter day Georgia) where he was martyred and buried near the Temple of the Sun at Sebastopolis. Other sources tell us he was martyred in Jerusalem.

God bless,

LSP