Matthew

In the Christian tradition

Matthew is the apostle who was a tax collector at the time of his call by Jesus (Matthew 9:9), traditionally identified as the author of the first gospel. He is the patron saint of accountants, bankers, and tax collectors. The Catholic and Anglican calendars commemorate him on September 21; the Orthodox calendar on November 16.

Matthew's gospel, traditionally regarded as the first written (modern scholarship generally places it as second after Mark), is the most explicitly Jewish of the four, with the genealogy of Jesus traced back to Abraham and many quotations from the Hebrew prophets as fulfilled in Jesus. The same figure is called Levi in Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27, leading to the traditional identification of Matthew with Levi. Tradition holds that Matthew preached in Judea, in Ethiopia, and in Persia; the location of his martyrdom varies in the different traditions. The name has been in continuous Christian use; modern English-speaking Christian families use it freely.