Matthew was called by Christ, who said, “Follow me,” while he sat at the tax booth, as appears in Matthew 19 [read: Matthew 9]. According to Bede, a tax booth is a place where tolls or gabelles are exacted, for the Greek telos is interpreted “tax” in Latin.
This office or occupation was devoted to avarice and unjust profits. Hence such tax collectors were called publicani, as though they were public sinners. Matthew himself calls himself a tax collector, but Mark and Luke, when writing of his conversion, call him by another name, namely Levi. He had two names and was called both Matthew and Levi.
Matthew is interpreted “gift of haste” or “giver of counsel.” Levi is interpreted “assumed,” “called,” or “approached.”
Because the occupation of the tax booth could not be practiced without sin, Matthew never returned to it after his conversion, unlike Peter and his companions, who practiced the fisherman’s trade after their calling because it could be done without sin. See On Penance, Distinction 5, Business.
This apostle and evangelist was therefore the first to write a Gospel, composing it in Hebrew for Jews converted to the faith. Blessed Barnabas traveled about preaching and carried the original or a copy with him; by placing it upon the sick, he healed many.
After the coming of the Holy Spirit, Matthew went to the regions of Ethiopia to teach the faith there. Entering the city of Vadaber, he found two magicians named Zaroes and Arphaxat. They so maddened people that through their magic they seemed able to deprive whomever they wished of the use and health of their bodily members. They had risen to such pride that they caused themselves to be worshiped as gods.
Matthew the Apostle lodged in the house of the eunuch who was steward over all the treasures of Candicis, queen of the Ethiopians. Philip the deacon had baptized this man while he was returning by road from Jerusalem to his homeland, as appears in Acts 8.
Matthew exposed the magicians’ evil works. When by diabolical art they sent two dragons against the Apostle to destroy him, Matthew made them as gentle as lambs with the sign of the cross and commanded them to depart to a desert place without harming anyone.
The Apostle began to preach to the people about the glory of paradise and the mystery of the Incarnation. While he preached, a rumor arose among the people, who were lamenting the death of the king’s son. The magicians had been summoned but could not raise him. They advised the king that his son had passed into the company of the gods and that he should therefore have a temple built for him.
The eunuch brought the Apostle to the king and told him of Matthew’s power. Matthew raised the son by his prayer. When he saw this, the king, whose name was Egippus, sent messengers through the diverse provinces of his kingdom, saying: “Come and see a god hidden in the form of a human being.”
An innumerable multitude came with golden crowns and diverse kinds of sacrifices that they wished to offer. The Apostle restrained them, saying: “Men and brothers, what are you doing? I am not God but a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
By preaching Christ to them, he converted them. From the crowns and gifts brought to him and from other resources, they constructed a great church, completing it within thirty days. The Apostle occupied his see there for thirty-three years and converted that entire country to Christ.
King Egippus, his wife and his whole household, and all his people were baptized. Matthew consecrated the king’s daughter Epigenia to God under a profession of virginity and placed her over more than two hundred virgins.
After Egippus’s death, Hirtacus succeeded him in the kingdom. Desiring to marry the virgin Epygenia, he asked the Apostle, under whose counsel she was governed, to persuade her to this. He promised Matthew half the kingdom if he could accomplish it.
The Apostle told Hirtacus to come to church with the people on Sunday, according to the custom of his predecessor, and promised that in Epigenia’s presence he would commend the great benefits of marriage. Hirtacus gladly accepted, thinking that Matthew would persuade Epigenia to marry him.
When Sunday came, the whole people assembled, Epigenia came with the consecrated virgins, and the king arrived. Matthew preached at length about the benefits of marriage. The king praised him wonderfully, thinking that he would conclude by urging Epigenia to consent to marriage with Hirtacus. But his expectation deceived him.
After commending marriage, Matthew added: “Although marriage is so holy in itself when the covenant of fidelity is preserved, you who stand here know well that if anyone were to presume to violate the bride of one of the king’s servants, he would merit not only the king’s indignation but also a cruel death. He would be condemned not because he had taken a wife, but because he had presumed to violate his lord’s wife.
“So too, O king, since you know that Epigenia has been dedicated to Christ the eternal King and made his bride, how can you seize the bride of a king more powerful than yourself without incurring the great vengeance of God?”
When Hirtacus heard this, he departed in a rage. The Apostle remained constant and fearless, encouraged everyone to endure, blessed Epigenia—who had fallen down in fear—together with the other virgins, and celebrated the solemnities of Mass.
The unbelieving king sent a detestable servant to destroy the Apostle of God. When Matthew had celebrated Mass and was standing near the altar with his hands raised toward heaven, the servant plunged a sword into his back, killed him, and consecrated him as a martyr.
When the people learned of this, they hastened to the royal palace intending to burn it all. They were restrained by the admonitions of the priests and deacons and celebrated the martyrdom with joy.
Hirtacus did not desist from his designs. When neither matrons nor magicians could bend Epigenia to consent to marry him, he surrounded her entire house by night with a great fire so that she and the other virgins would be burned together.
The Apostle of God appeared, drove all that fire away from Epigenia’s house, and ordered it to proceed to the king’s palace. It consumed all his possessions, while only the king and his son barely escaped. The son was then seized by a demon. Confessing his father’s crimes, he hurried to the Apostle’s tomb. The father became leprous and killed himself.
Epigenia’s brother, who had been baptized, was made king by the people. He governed the kingdom admirably for seventy years, placed his most Christian son after himself upon the throne, and filled the whole region of Ethiopia with churches.
Afterward blessed Matthew’s body was translated from there and is said to rest in the city of Salerno in the kingdom.