A tax collector called directly by Jesus who became an apostle and, by tradition, the author of the first Gospel.

Saint Matthew was a tax collector in Roman-occupied Galilee whom Jesus called directly to become one of the Twelve Apostles, according to the Gospels. Tradition identifies him as the author of the Gospel that bears his name and holds that, after the Apostles dispersed to preach the Gospel, he carried out missionary work before dying a martyr’s death, which one strand of tradition places at Hierapolis in Asia Minor.

Quick Facts

• Called: A tax collector (publican) in Roman Galilee
• Venerated as: Apostle, Evangelist, and martyr
• Feast Day: September 21 (Western calendar); November 16 (Eastern calendar)

Who Was Saint Matthew?

Before his call, Matthew worked as a tax collector — a profession that made him socially despised among fellow Jews, since it meant collaborating with Rome’s occupation and often extorting more than was owed. The Gospels describe Jesus calling him from his tax booth with a simple command to follow, and Matthew responded immediately, leaving his post to become one of the Twelve. Church tradition, from very early on, has identified him as the author of the Gospel of Matthew, though the exact process of that Gospel’s composition remains a subject of ongoing scholarly discussion.

Historical Setting

Matthew’s calling took place in first-century Galilee, under Roman rule, where tax collection was typically farmed out to local agents who paid Rome a set sum and then collected what they could from their neighbors, often profiting from the difference. That system placed men like Matthew at the margins of respectable Jewish society even as it gave them a measure of material security — a status Matthew set aside entirely to follow Jesus.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Matthew

The Church remembers Matthew both for the radical nature of his call — a man from a despised profession chosen without hesitation — and for the Gospel tradition associated with his name, which has shaped Christian understanding of Jesus’s life and teaching for two thousand years. As with the other apostles, later tradition holds he died a martyr while carrying the Gospel to lands beyond Judea, though the specific circumstances are not established with certainty.

Canonization and Feast Day

As one of the Twelve Apostles, Matthew’s recognition as a saint predates the Church’s later formal processes of canonization entirely; his veneration rests on apostolic authority itself and has been continuous since the earliest generations of the Church. His feast is kept on September 21 in the West and November 16 in the East.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

Matthew’s story is one of the clearest Gospel examples of conversion: a man engaged in a compromised, even scorned, way of life who left everything the moment he was called. Catholics can take from him the assurance that no past occupation or reputation places a person beyond the reach of Christ’s call, and that following it may mean leaving behind real security.

A Prayer to Saint Matthew

Saint Matthew, you left your tax collector’s post the moment Christ called you by name. Help us to hear his call in our own lives, and to respond with the same readiness, whatever it costs us to leave behind. Amen.

Sources

• Roman Martyrology (Martyrologium Romanum)
• New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia (newadvent.org)
• Butler’s Lives of the Saints, ed. Herbert Thurston and Donald Attwater