The last letter of the New Testament is attributed to Judas Thaddeus, cousin of the Lord. Matthias instead took over the Apostolic College in place of Judas Iscariot

by Lorenzo Bianchi

The apostle Judas called Thaddeus, which means "magnanimous" or, according to some codes, Lebbaeus, that is "courageous", or again, like Simon Zealot, "ardent with zeal", was the son of Cleophas, brother of James the Minor and cousin of Gentleman; the last of the “Catholic letters” in the New Testament is attributed to him.  Benedict XVI in the general audience of 11 October 2006 recalled the conclusion formed by these beautiful words: «To him who can preserve you from every fall and make you appear before his glory without defects and in joy, to the only God our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord: glory, majesty, strength and power before all time, now and forever. Amen".

There is very little information on the life of Saint Judas Thaddeus. A tradition assigns him apostolic activities in Palestine and nearby regions; Syrian writers state that he was martyred at Arado, near Beirut. From the confusion with Addai, evangelizer of Mesopotamian Syria, disciple of the apostle Thomas and one of the seventy-two mentioned in the Gospel of Luke (Lk 10, 1), another tradition arises which assigns Judas Thaddeus a natural death in Edessa ( today Urfa, Turkey), capital of a kingdom located in northwestern Mesopotamia. The origin of this confusion is perhaps to be found in a legendary story, reported by Eusebius of Caesarea, which narrates the healing of King Abgar V in Edessa and his conversion to Christianity.

But the tradition that is most strengthened is the one that unites Judas Thaddeus with the other apostle Simon the Zealot, together with whom, according to the Roman Breviary, he preached in Mesopotamia. Therefore the Passio Simonis et Iudae indicates for both the common martyrdom by beatings of the stick in Persia, in the city of Suanir, around the year 70, and their burial in Babylon.

The relics of Judas Thaddeus, of which we know in various places in France, have been found in Rome since the Middle Ages, together with those of Simon, placed in the ancient basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican where there was an altar dedicated to them. After the construction of the new Michelangelo basilica, since 27 October 1605 they have been located in the center of the apse of the left transept (Tribune of the holy apostles Simon and Judas), in the altar which in 1963 was dedicated to Saint Joseph, patron saint of the universal Church. A relic of Saint Jude Thaddeus is also displayed and venerated in the Roman church of San Salvatore in Lauro.

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Matthias is the apostle associated with the eleven after Easter, replacing Judas, who had betrayed Jesus; of his choice in preference to Joseph, called Barsabbas and nicknamed Justus, we read in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1, 15-26). 

He was of Jewish origin and had followed Jesus from the beginning of his preaching: he was probably also one of the seventy-two disciples mentioned by Luke, as stated by Eusebius of Caesarea: «It is also said that Matthias, who was added to the group of the apostles in of Judah, and also his companion who had the honor of similar candidacy, were judged worthy of the same choice among the seventy-two" (Ecclesiastical history). 

Of his life, apart from the episode reported in the Acts of the Apostles, nothing certain is known. A tradition, reported by Clement of Alexandria, makes him die a natural death; a second says he was a martyr, crucified and buried in present-day Georgia, where he apparently went after an initial period of preaching in Judea; a third instead (Roman Breviary, Martyrology of Florus) affirms his martyrdom, after his preaching in Macedonia and then in Palestine; precisely in this last region he was stoned by Jews, as an enemy of the Mosaic law, and finished off by a Roman soldier who cut off his head with a blow of an axe, the instrument that often appears in depictions of him, especially in the Church of 'Orient.

A late tradition has it that Matthias' body was found in 325 by Helena, mother of Constantine, in Jerusalem, and from there transported to Rome, in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where medieval and Renaissance sources (for example the Caption Aurea of Iacopo da Varagine) they say it is present in the porphyry urn under the high altar together with the relics of Saint Jerome, while the skull was kept in a reliquary.

The Annals of Trier (Germany) of the year 754 (but their editing is much later) also attest to the burial of Matthias in Jerusalem, confirmed by a later addition to the apocryphal Acts of Matthias, according to which his body was came directly from Jerusalem.

Finally, a third tradition tries to reconcile the first two, speaking of a translation from Jerusalem to Trier, with a stop in Rome. In Trier, Mattia's body was found in 1127, during the reconstruction of the basilica (now named after him) connected to the adjacent Benedictine convent; his tomb is still found in the middle of the central nave, in the same place where it was then placed. Other relics that a medieval tradition attributes to the apostle are finally preserved in the basilica of Santa Giustina in Padua, but very recent scientific investigations seem to exclude this attribution.