Saint  Matthew           

The Church gives us this short account of a life better known to GOD than to men

Matthew, also named Levi, was an Apostle and Evangelist. He was sitting in the customhouse at Capharnaum when he was called by CHRIST. He immediately followed HIM and then made a feast for HIM and His Disciples.

After the Resurrection of CHRIST, and before setting out for the province which it was his lot to evangelize, Matthew was most probably the first to write the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST. He wrote it in Hebrew, for the sake of those of the circumcision  who had been converted.

Soon after, he went into Ethiopia, where he preached the Gospel, and confirmed his teaching by many miracles.

One of the greatest of these was his raising to life the king's daughter, whereby he converted the king and his wife, and the whole country. After the king's death, his daughter Iphigenia was demanded in marriage by his successor Hirtacus, who, finding that through Matthew's exhortation she had vowed her virginity to GOD and now persevered in her holy resolution, ordered the Apostle to be put to death, as he was celebrating the holy mysteries at the altar. Thus on the eleventh of the Kalends of October, Matthew  crowned his apostolate with the glory of martyrdom. His body was translated to Salerno ; and in the time of Pope Gregory VII his relics  were laid in the crypt of a church dedicated in his name, -now the cathedral of Salerno- where he is piously honored.