Using the prophecies of the Old Testament, the Apostle Matthias demonstrated that Jesus Christ is the True God, the promised Messiah, the Son of God, Consubstantial and Coeternal with God the Father. The impious Ananias uttered a speech in which he blasphemously slandered the Lord. The Jewish High Priest Ananias hated Christ and earlier had commanded the Apostle James, Brother of the Lord, to be flung down from the heights of the Temple, and now he ordered that the Apostle Matthias be arrested and brought for judgment before the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem. He worked great miracles in the Name of the Lord Jesus and he converted a great many to faith in Christ. The Apostle Matthias returned to Judea and did not cease to enlighten his countrymen with the light of Christ’s teachings. Another time, when the pagans had become enraged intending to kill the Apostle, the earth opened up and engulfed them. When Saint Matthias left the prison, the pagans searched for him in vain, for he had become invisible to them. He drank it, and not only did he himself remain unharmed, but he also healed other prisoners who had been blinded by the potion. Once, pagans forced the saint to drink a poison potion. He was frequently subjected to deadly peril, but the Lord preserved him to preach the Gospel. According to Church Tradition, he was preaching at Pontine Ethiopia (presently Western Georgia) and Macedonia. During a three year journey of the Apostle Andrew, Saint Matthias was with him at Edessa and Sebaste. The Apostle Matthias journeyed after this to Amasea, a city on the shore of the sea. Here the Apostle Matthias was locked into prison, from which he was miraculously freed by Saint Andrew the First-Called. From Jerusalem he went with the Apostles Peter and Andrew to Syrian Antioch, and was in the Cappadocian city of Tianum and Sinope. After the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Matthias preached the Gospel at Jerusalem and in Judea together with the other Apostles (Acts 6:2, 8:14). When the Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself to the world, Saint Matthias believed in Him as the Messiah, followed constantly after Him and was numbered among the Seventy Apostles, whom the Lord “sent them two by two before His face” (Luke 10:1).Īfter the Ascension of the Savior, Saint Matthias was chosen by lot to replace Judas Iscariot as one of the Twelve Apostles (Acts 1:15-26). From his early childhood he studied the Law of God under the guidance of Saint Simeon the God-Receiver (February 3). The Holy Apostle Matthias was born at Bethlehem of the Tribe of Judah.
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