This saint was chosen to take the place of the traitor Judas

                     May 14--------- St. Matthias, the Apostle

According to St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Matthias was chosen to take the place of Judas by the way of casting lots.  Matthias had been a very faithful attendant to Our Lord from the time of His Baptism by St. John to His Ascension. 

Now, Divine Providence saw fit that he become one of the Apostles, a position he held with greater humility and fervor lest he fall as his predecessor.

Soon after his election, he received the Holy Spirit with the other Apostles and then applied himself to converting nations beginning around Cappadocia and the coasts of the Caspian Sea.  Considering the savagery of these people, he underwent incredible hardships and died a martyr's death in Ethiopia.

As St. Matthias was called to the great dignity of being  an Apostle of Our Lord, so have we, Catholics, been called as members of the One True Church. Was this call not a most gratuitous favor and mercy?

Let us ask St. Matthias to intercede on our behalf for the grace of always being grateful for such an enormous gift and for the fortitude to work with fervor for the glory of God on earth