Matthias – the 13th Apostle

Matthias holds a unique and somewhat paradoxical place in Christian history. As the replacement for Judas Iscariot, he is the only apostle not directly called by Jesus during his earthly ministry, and the only one chosen by a human administrative process (the casting of lots). Yet, the moment he is elected in the first chapter of Acts, he vanishes entirely from the biblical narrative.

To understand Matthias, we have to look at the strict criteria for his election, the fragmented traditions of his missionary work, and the surprising archaeological legacy he left in Western Europe.

The Apostolic Criteria and the Election (Acts 1)

Following the defection and death of Judas, Peter addressed the early Christian community (numbering about 120 people) in Jerusalem to fill the vacancy. Maintaining the number twelve was highly symbolic, representing the twelve tribes of Israel and signaling the restoration of God’s covenant people.

Peter established a strict prerequisite for the candidates: they had to have been a constant companion of Jesus from the time of his baptism by John until the Ascension. This drastically narrowed the field. Only two men met the criteria: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias.

Rather than voting, the community prayed and "cast lots" (likely using marked stones drawn from a vessel). This was deeply rooted in Old Testament tradition (Proverbs 16:33), where casting lots was seen not as random chance, but as a mechanism to remove human bias and allow God to make the final choice. The lot fell to Matthias.

Where Did Matthias Go? The Fragmented Traditions

Because the canonical New Testament is silent on Matthias after Acts 1, his subsequent life is reconstructed from Early Church historians and apocryphal traditions. The accounts are notoriously fractured:

• Judea and the Jewish Council: The historian Nicephorus claims Matthias first preached the Gospel in Judea. A later tradition suggests he was ultimately arrested by the local religious authorities, stoned to death, and then beheaded with an axe in Jerusalem.
• Aethiopia (Colchis/Georgia): Other ancient traditions, including those cited by the church historian Eusebius, place Matthias's missionary work in "Aethiopia." However, in ancient geography, this did not necessarily mean modern Africa. It often referred to the region of Colchis (modern-day Georgia in the Caucasus) on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. According to Greek tradition, he was crucified there.
• Cappadocia: The apocryphal Acts of Andrew and Matthias describes him traveling to the "city of the cannibals" (sometimes identified as Sinope or Cappadocia), where he was blinded and imprisoned until being miraculously rescued by the Apostle Andrew.

Because of the conflicting accounts of his martyrdom—stoning, crucifixion, and beheading—he is most commonly depicted in Christian iconography holding a halberd or an axe.

The Gnostic Connection and Lost Texts

In the early centuries of the Church, Matthias became a figure of intense interest for Gnostic sects. Because he was chosen after the Resurrection, Gnostic groups found it easy to claim that Matthias had received secret, esoteric teachings from the risen Christ that the other apostles did not possess.

Early church fathers like Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius reference a "Gospel of Matthias," which they uniformly condemned as heretical. Additionally, the Book of Thomas the Contender, discovered in 1945 among the Nag Hammadi library in Egypt, is framed as a secret revelation spoken by Jesus to Thomas, and recorded by Matthias. While these texts do not provide historical facts about the actual man, they demonstrate how significant his name had become in early Christian antiquity to lend authority to alternative theological frameworks.

The Archaeological Legacy: St. Matthias Abbey in Trier

The most tangible historical footprint associated with Matthias is found far from the Middle East. According to tradition, the relics of Saint Matthias were discovered by St. Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, during her famous pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the early 4th century.

Helena brought the relics back to the imperial city of Trier (in modern-day Germany). Today, these relics are housed in the crypt of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Matthias in Trier.

This gives Matthias a unique geographic distinction: he is the only one of the original twelve apostles whose tomb and relics are claimed to be located north of the Alps. During the Middle Ages, this made Trier a massive pilgrimage destination, rivaling Santiago de Compostela in Spain, as European pilgrims who could not afford the dangerous journey to Rome or Jerusalem could still visit the physical remains of a direct apostle of Christ.