St. Matthias

May 14 is the feast of St. Matthias, the apostle chosen by lot to take the place of Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:15-26). The eleven apostles, with Mary and the women, gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem after the Ascension, and Peter proposed that the vacancy be filled from among those who had been with Christ from the baptism of John to the Ascension. Two were proposed — Joseph Barsabbas and Matthias — and the lot fell on Matthias, who was "enrolled with the eleven apostles."

The Roman tradition, attested by the Liber Pontificalis, says that the Empress Helena translated Matthias's relics from Jerusalem to Rome, where they were placed in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The present Abbey of Santa Giustina in Padua, however, claims Matthias's body, translated there, by tradition, in the 8th century. The relics lie under the high altar of the abbey, in a chapel dedicated to him, and the tradition of Padua has held since the medieval period.

The feast was kept on February 24 in the pre-Vatican II calendar (the traditional date of his translation) and was moved to May 14 in 1969, so that it would fall close to the Ascension — the moment of his election. The feast is the feast of the apostolic succession: Matthias was the first to be chosen by the Church to fill a vacancy, and his election is the scriptural precedent for every episcopal ordination since.