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Matthias was one of the seventy disciples of Jesus, and had been with him from his baptism by John to the Ascension, according to Acts i:21 - 22). Acts, i, 15-26) that in the days following the Ascension, Peter proposed to the assembled disciples, who numbered one hundred and twenty, that they choose one to fill the place of the traitor Judas in the Apostolate. Two disciples, Joseph, called Barsabas Justus, and Matthias were selected, and lots were drawn, with the result in favour of Matthias, who thus became associated with the eleven Apostles. Zeller declared this narrative inconsistent with the history of the Apostles' movements, in that the Apostles were in Galilee after the Crucifixion. The Acts of the Apostles clearly state that about the feast of Pentecost they returned to Jerusalem.

Not that they became apostles through being chosen for some distinguished peculiarity of nature, since also Judas was chosen along with them. But they were capable of becoming apostles on being chosen by Him who foresees even ultimate issues. Matthias, accordingly, who was not chosen along with them, on showing himself worthy of becoming an apostle, is substituted for Judas.

writings of Clement of Alexandria, Book VI, Chapter XIII

All further information concerning the life and death of Matthias is vague and contradictory. None of it is in the canonical New Testament. Even his name is variable: the Syriac version of Eusebius calls him throughout not Matthias but "Tolmai", i.e. Bartholomew, without confusing him with the Bartholomew who was originally one of the twelve Apostles, and is often identified with the Nathanael mentioned in the Gospel of John. Clement of Alexandria says some identified him with Zacchaeus, the Clementine Recognitions identify him with Barnabas, Hilgenfeld thinks he is the same as Nathanael.

According to Nicephorus (Historia eccl., 2, 40), Matthias first preached the Gospel in Judea, then in Ethiopia (made out to be a synonym for the geographically quite separate Colchis (now Caucasian Georgia) and was crucified in Colchis.

The Synopsis of Dorotheus contains this tradition:

Matthias in interiore AEthiopia, ubi Hyssus maris portus et Phasis fluvius est, hominibus barbaris et carnivoris praedicavit Evangelium. Mortuus est autem in Sebastopoli, ibique prope templum Solis sepultus ("Matthias preached the Gospel to barbarians and meat-eaters in the interior of Ethiopia, where the sea harbor of Hyssus is, at the mouth of the river Phasis. He died at Sebastopolis, and was buried there, near the Temple of the Sun"). An extant Coptic Acts of Andrew and Matthias, places his activity in "the city of the cannibals" in Ethiopia.

Alternately, another tradition maintains that Matthias was stoned at Jerusalem by the Jews, and then beheaded (cf. Tillemont, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclesiastique des six premiers siècles, I, 406-7).

It is said that Helena, mother of Constantine the Great brought the relics of St. Matthias to Rome, and that a portion of them was at Trier. The Bollandists (Acta SS., May, III) doubts whether the relics that are in Rome are not rather those of the St. Matthias who was Bishop of Jerusalem about the year 120, and whose history would seem to have been confounded with that of the Apostle.

1 'Gospel of Matthias'

This work is lost, but Clement of Alexandria (Strom., III, 4) records a sentence that the Nicolaitans ascribe to Matthias: "we must combat our flesh, set no value upon it, and concede to it nothing that can flatter it, but rather increase the growth of our soul by faith and knowledge". The Gospel of Matthias was mentioned by Origen (Homily upon Luke. i); by Eusebius (Hist. eccl., III, 25), who attributes it to heretics; by JeromeFor other uses see: Jerome (disambiguation Jerome (about 340 September 30, 420), (full name Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus is best known as the translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. Jerome's edition, the Vulgate, is still the official (Praef. in Matth.), and in the Decree of Gelasius (VI, 8) which declares it apocryphal. It comes at the end of the list of the Codex Barroccianus (206).

This lost gospel is probably the document whence Clement of Alexandria quoted several passages, saying that they were borrowed from the traditions of Matthias, Paradoseis, the testimony of which he claimed to have been invoked by the heretics Valentinus, Marcion, and Basilides (Strom., VII, 17). According to the Philosophoumena, VII, 20, Basilides quoted apocryphal discourses, which he attributed to Matthias. These three writings: the gospel, the Traditions, and the Apocryphal Discourses were identified by Zahn (Gesch. des N. T. Kanon, II, 751), but Harnack (Chron. der altchrist. Litteratur, 597) denies this identification. Tischendorf ("Acta apostolorum apocrypha", Leipzig, l85I) published after Thilo, 1846, "Acta Andreae et Matthiae in urbe anthropophagarum ", which, according to Lipsius, belonged to the middle of the second century. This apocrypha relates that Matthias went among the cannibals and, being cast into prison, was delivered by Andrew. Needless to say, the entire narrative is without historical value. Moreover, it should be remembered that, in the apocryphal writings, Matthew and Matthias have sometimes been confounded.