St. Matthew, whose Greek name means the Gift of Jehovah, and who was called Levi by St. Mark and St. Luke, the new title signifying * associated with,’ was of Hebrew birth, and by profession a publican or tax-gatherer. He is spoken of by St. Mark as the son of Alphaeus, from which some, with scant reason, have assumed that he was a brother of St. James the Less. As a matter of fact very little is known of him, for in his own Gospel — or rather in the Gospel attributed to him, for there is no proof that he actually wrote it — he is only alluded to once, and Saints Mark and Luke refer to him merely in connection with the two chief events of his life : the Call to follow Christ, and the Feast, held apparently soon after that call, in honor of his new Master, to which, to the great scandal of the Jews, were bidden many of those with whom St. Matthew had associated when still a publican.
Amongst the Apostles St. Matthew took seventh rank, but he is always placed first in a list of the Evangelists, because the Gospel attributed to him is supposed to have been written earlier than any of the other three, and was for long considered the most important of the four, on account of its manifest effort to reconcile the Jewish and the Gentile world.
As is the case with every disciple of Christ, actual fact has been largely supplemented by legend and tradition with regard to St. Matthew. It is related that after winning many souls to the truth in Judaea he went to preach the Gospel, first in Egypt, and later in Ethiopia —that is to say, in Southern and Eastern Asia, leading a rigidly austere life, eating nothing but roots and berries. In a certain city he was received by the Eunuch who had been baptized by Philip, who treated him with great honor, and would fain have kept him with him always. Whilst he was the guest of this eunuch two terrible magicians were keeping all the people of Ethiopia in terror by their spells, inflicting on them many fearful diseases. These magicians were routed by the mere word of St. Matthew, who converted all who had lived under their rule to Christianity, baptizing many thousands. He also healed the sick, and, it is said, sometimes even raised the dead. The son of the King of Egypt was restored to life by him, and the daughter was cured of leprosy. The latter became the Superior of one of the earliest communities of virmns dedicated to Christ, and when an evil King, Hirtacus by name, endeavored to break into the sacred asylum and carry off the Princess, he was smitten with leprosy as a punishment; for which he is said to have revenged himself by the murder of St. Matthew.
According to some traditions St. Matthew died a natural death. According to others he was martyred at a city called Nadabar, and was buried at Hierapolis, in Parthia, whence his body was removed to Sereno, where it is said still to remain, in a church dedicated to him.
The most generally received opinion with regard to the first Gospel now is that it was the work of several writers, founded on a collection of the saying of the Lord, written in Aramaic by St. Matthew, and largely drawn upon also by St. Luke. An Eastern tradition, however, relates that through Divine inspiration the completed MS. of the narrative of St. Matthew was found in the time of the Emperor Zeno, in the island of Cyprus, side by side with the body of St. Barnabas.
In addition to the symbols already referred to in the general account of the four Evangelists, St. Matthew is sometimes distinguished by a scroll or streamer, on which is inscribed ‘Liber generationis Jesu Christi,’ or the article of the creed he is supposed to have composed, ‘from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead,’ varied occasionally by some other clause, for the ascriptions to the different Apostles were by no means constant. Occasionally, too, he is provided with a lance or a halberd, because of a tradition that he was killed with one of these weapons whilst celebrating Mass; he is also often seen with a purse in one hand or on a table before him, and with bags of money at his feet, in allusion to his office of tax-gatherer. Yet again, he is now and then represented kneeling at an altar, with his murderer behind him about to stab or strangle him. The chasuble, or upper garment, worn by the priest when celebrating Mass is also often given to St. Matthew; now and then two demons are represented fleeing before him, because of his defeat of the magicians alluded to above; and he is sometimes associated with St. Iphigenia, whom he is said to have baptized. When figured as an Evangelist St. Matthew generally holds a book or a pen, and he is often accompanied by an angel, who supports the book or offers an ink-horn for his use. Now and then St. Matthew holds the builder’s rule generally associated with St. Thomas, but sometimes also given to those Apostles the manner of whose death is doubtful.
One of the oldest representations of St. Matthew is that in a Greek MS., probably dating from the ninth century, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, in which the tax-gatherer is seen sitting at a table with his hands on a pile of gold pieces and looking round at Christ, who stands a little behind him; and in the Cabinet des Etampes at Paris is a series of engraving illustrating the recorded and traditional history of St. Matthew, including his Call by Jesus and his Murder at the altar when saying Mass.
In the series of silver-gilt engravings on the old doors of the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome, saved in the fire of 1823 when the rest of the building was destroyed, St. Matthew is represented on his death-bed, with an angel swinging a censer beside him; and in a chapel dedicated to the Saint at Ravenna are some much-defaced frescoes, of which three subjects only are decipherable: the Calling of St. Matthew, his Preaching in Ethiopia, and the Baptism of the King and Queen there.
Amongst other representations of scenes from the life of St. Matthew may be mentioned a quaint old painting attributed to Mabuse in the collection of the Royal Family of England, which is said to have been filched from a church in Cadiz in 1597 by the Earl of Essex, and is described in the catalogue of the pictures belonging to Charles I. as a ‘ very old defaced curious altar-piece upon a thick board, where Christ is calling St. Matthew out of the Custom House.’ In the Dresden Gallery is a rendering of the same subject by Pordenone. For a convent of Mendicant Friars at Bologna Ludovico Caracci painted the ‘Calling of St. Matthew,’ and for a chapel of the Church of S. Luigi de’ Francesi at Rome Caravaggio produced three somewhat coarse representations of the Writing of the Gospel, the Calling, and the Death of St. Matthew.
In the various renderings of the ‘Feast in the House of Levi’ St. Matthew is, of course, a prominent figure. The most celebrated examples are that by Carpaccio in S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni at Venice, and that by Paolo Veronese, painted for the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, but now in the Academy of that, city, where it occupies the whole of the wall in the principal room. The scene is represented as one of great magnificence, and if it be at all true to life must certainly have taken place before, not after, the giver of the entertainment had resigned all his worldly goods to follow the Master.
The introduction of St. Matthew among the attendant saints in devotional pictures is rare but he does occasionally appear in altar-pieces, as in one by Annibale Caracci, now in the Dresden Gallery, in which he is opposite to St. John the Baptist. Amongst the various representations of St. Matthew in nis character of Evangelist, those which best interpret his character are, perhaps, the fresco by Correggio in the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista at Parma, in which his figure is full of simple dignity, and the bas-relief medallion by Luca della Robbia in S. Croce, Florence, in which the saint is seated, with his symbolic angel beside him, and appears to be absorbed in studying the book he holds open in his hand.
St. Mark, whose first name was John, as stated in the Acts, was not one of the Apostles, and is generally supposed not to have been converted until after the Ascension of Christ. Very little is known of his life, but his mother, Mary, had a house near Jerusalem, where the early converts used to meet for worship in secret during the persecutions under Nero. Her son has long been supposed to have been the young man mentioned in the Gospel of St. Mark as having run out to see the Savior being led away by the Roman escort from the Mount of Olives, housed by the noise, St. Mark hurried forth, clad only in the long linen garment in which Orientals are accustomed to sleep; and when threatened with arrest by the soldiers, he fled, leaving his robe in the hands of those who tried to arrest him. It has also been suggested that the Last Supper took place in the house of Mary, the mother of Mark; but this there is no evidence to prove, and it is generally supposed that the author of the second Gospel was never brought into direct intercourse with Christ, although he must often have seen Him going to and fro in the city. For many years two totally distinct opinions prevailed in the Church as to the origin of the Gospel of St. Mark, one party, led by St. Augustine, holding that St. Mark merely founded his narrative on that of St. Matthew, the other following the belief of St. Jerome, that he wrote at the dictation of St. Peter, originating nothing himself. Both these views have been rejected by recent criticism, and the generally received opinion now is that St. Mark wrote his Gospel with his own hand and in his own language, founding his narrative chiefly on what he had heard from St. Peter, whose favorite disciple he was, but culling incidents also from other sources, there having been many eye-witnesses of the miracles amongst his contemporaries. However that may be, it seems fairly certain that the Gospel was written at Rome, about A.D. 70, and there is no doubt that St. Mark spent a considerable time in the capital of Italy.
According to the most generally accepted traditions, St. Mark, after his conversion by St. Peter, was sent by him with Saints Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey to Perga in Pamphylia, referred to in the twelfth and thirteenth chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. For some reason unexplained, though it is supposed that he had offended St. Paul, St. Mark was soon sent back to Jerusalem; but later he accompanied St. Peter, first to Aquileia, on the shores of the Adriatic, and thence to Rome, remaining with him there, according to some authorities, until the martyrdom of the great Apostle, whilst others say that he went, before the death of his master, to preach the Gospel in Egypt That St. Mark was the founder of the Church of Alexandria there seems no reason to doubt, and, although there is absolutely no evidence to prove it, be is said to have suffered martyrdom there. The story goes that, enraged at his contempt for their gods, the people of Alexandria accused him of being a magician, and having found him worshipping his own God during a solemn feast in honor of Serapis, they bound him with cords and dragged him through the streets, shouting out that the ox, as they contemptuously called him, should be dragged to Bucoles, a pasture-ground for cattle near the sea. This was done, but though the saint was thus tortured for a whole day, leaving the ground stained with his blood, he was still alive at sunset, and was thrown for the night into prison, where the Savior Himself appeared to him, encouraging him to endure to the end. The next, day the sacrifice was consummated, for St. Mark expired under the cruel treatment he received, a terrible storm breaking upon the murderers just before the end, so that they all fled in dismay, making it possible for the converts to the faith to take up the body of their beloved teacher and give it Christian burial. The mangled corpse was laid to rest at Bucoles, within sight and sound of the sea, and early in the fourth century a church was built to mark the spot. As late as the eighth century a marble tomb was still revered at Alexandria as that containing the body of St. Mark; but in 815 the sacred relics are said to have been removed in secret to Venice, and soon after that the building of the beautiful Cathedral dedicated to the saint was begun, under the direction of the reigning Doge, Giovanni I., who appointed the Apostle patron saint of the lagoon city, where he has ever since been specially honored. The exact spot where the body of St. Mark was buried was long kept a secret, lest the sacred relic should be stolen from its new owners; but it is said to have been discovered in 1811, the coffin containing, besides the bones, a slip of lead bearing the name of the Apostle, and the date, October 8, 1094, the day of the consecration of the old Basilica, till then used as the Cathedral. In 1835 the body was re-interred with great ceremony beneath the new altar of S. Marco.
The memory of the Apostle is perpetuated in the coinage of Venice, the money in circulation in early mediaeval times haying on the reverse side his bust or figure, with the inscription, ‘Pax: tibi: Marc: Evangelista.’ Later, at the initiation of Doge F. Dandolo, who reigned between 1328 and 1339, human representation was replaced by the symbolic winged lion standing upright on his hind-legs, and in the sixteenth century this lion received a halo, and was made to rest one paw on the Gospel of St. Mark.
St. Mark is a very popular saint in the Eastern and Western Churches. He is the patron not only of the present city of Venice, but of all the possessions once owned by the Queen of the Adriatic, as well as of Candia, Corfu, Zante, Dalmatia, the Corea and Treviso. Amongst other supernatural gifts he is credited with the power of preserving the believer from dying impenitent or unshriven, and he can still tempests. Probably bemuse of the Anianus incident related below, he is the special protector of glaziers, glass-makers, barbers, surgeons, and all liable to cot or otherwise wound themselves in their daily work, and^ as having been the secretary of St. Peter he looks after the interests of all notaries, recorders, and scribes.
The legends which have gathered about the memory of St. Mark are numerous. Many of them are alike quaint and significant, and they have been constantly chosen as subjects by artists, especially by those connected with Venice. One of the earliest of these stories is that of a cobbler, an accident to whose hand led to St. Mark becoming known as a healer of hurts. Soon after the Apostle arrived m Alexandria, as he was passing through a suburb, one of his shoes, worn no doubt with the long journey, burst at the side, and he called to a cobbler named Anianus, who happened to be near, to come and mend it Anianus at once complied, and in his haste he cut one of his fingers very badly. Dropping the shoe, he cried: ‘Oh, my God!’ and St. Mark, having reproved him for his irreverence, touched the wound, saying: ‘Let thy hand be cured in the name of Jesus.’ This so won the heart of the cobbler that he became a Christian, and after the martyrdom of his master he was elected Bishop of Alexandria in his stead, ruling over the Church with great zeal and skill until his death eighteen years later.
Still more famous than that of the cobbler is the legend of the great storm, which broke upon Venice on February 25th, 1340, when St. Mark intervened from heaven on behalf of his favorite city. According to an old Venetian chronicle, the waters rose continuously for three whole days, till they were many cubits higher than they had ever been before. Now it so happened that an old fisherman was in an open boat on the canal, and fearing he would be overwhelmed, he made for the Riva di San Marco, and there awaited for the storm to subside.
Presently there came to him a stranger of noble presence, who asked him to take him over to San Giorgio Maggiore, and when the old man said it was impossible until the weather moderated, for they would sink by the way, he besought him the more. So the fisherman, moved by his entreaties, and recognizing a divine leading in the matter, loosed his boat and started. To his surprise the passage was successfully made. The stranger landed, and told the boatman to wait for him. Presently he returned, accompanied by a young man. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘take us over to San Niccolo di Lido.’ ‘That,’ said the fisherman once more, ‘is impossible; see, I have but one oar. How can I hope to achieve such a crossing in such a storm?’ But the stranger told him not to fear, and to row boldly, for he would find it was possible, and his guerdon should be great. Once more the old man obeyed, and, lo! as he advanced the waves subsided, and it became quite calm. Arrived safely at San Niccolo, the two men landed and disappeared, the fisherman being again told to wait. Full of awe, for he knew not who the strangers might be, or what further wonders were about to occur, he obeyed, and ere long his employers were back with a third man. All got into the little boat, which could hardly hold so many, and its owner received the terrible order that he should row his frail craft out to the open sea. He did so, his limbs shaking with fear, his heart melting like wax, and as the land was left behind, the great waves threatening every moment to swamp the boat, he saw bearing down upon it a huge vessel full of demons. The three passengers, however, kept their composure, and just when all seemed lost, they stood up, making the sign of the cross. Immediately the sea became as still as a pond, the demons disappeared, and their big ship sank to rise no more. Then the stranger who had first joined the fisherman bid him return first to San Niccolo, where the last comer landed; then to San Giorgio Maggiore, where the second left the boat ; and then to San Marco, where the leader himself was about to take his leave, when the owner of the boat cried, ‘ But you have not paid me,’ for in spite of the miracle he had been privileged to witness the poor man still clung to the hope of an earthly reward for his toil and danger. The stranger paused, and looked earnestly at the speaker; then he said, ‘Thou art right; go now to the Doge and to the Procuratori of Venice, and tell them all that thou hast seen, for but for me and my companions Venice would have been destroyed this day. I am St. Mark, the protector of this city; he whom I brought with me at San Giorgio was St. George, and at the Lido thou didst take up the holy Bishop St. Nicolas. Tell the Doge and the Procuratori that they are to pay thee, and say to them also that the storm arose in punishment of the sin of a certain schoolmaster of San Felice, who after selling his soul to the Devil went and hanged himself.’ To this the fisherman replied with some fair show of reason, ‘But suppose when I tell them all this they do not believe me?’ Once more St. Mark looked earnestly at him; then he took a ring off his finger, gave it to him, and said, ‘Show them this ring, and tell them to look in the sanctuary where it should be kept, and they will not find it.’ Leaving no time for further inquiries, the saint then disappeared, the fisherman staring after him with the ring — worth, says the chronicler, five ducats — in his hand. The next morning he gained audience with the Doge and Procuratori, told them his wonderful story, showed them the ring, and when they had proved its truth by verifying the absence of the ring from its usual place in the Treasury of St. Mark — for the idea that a theft might have been committed never entered their minds — they gave the man a substantial reward, preserving him from all fear of want in the future. Moreover, a grand procession was organized in honor of the three great saints who had interfered in so remarkable a way on behalf of the city, and the ring of St. Mark was restored to its place amongst the other treasures in the sanctuary.
Another beautiful legend is that of the interference of the Evangelist on behalf of a poor Christian slave who had angered his heathen master by his frequent visits to the shrine of St. Mark when he was sent on errands in Venice. Constantly reproved, he as constantly offended, the resting-place of the saint appearing to exercise an irresistible fascination over him, until at last the master’s patience was exhausted, and he ordered the offender to be tortured to death in the public market-place. He was bound and dragged to the scene of the intended martyrdom, but when the executioners began their cruel work in the presence of a great crowd of spectators, St. Mark himself swept down from Heaven to the rescue, touch^ the bonds of the slave, which fell from him at once, broke the implements of the murderers, and disappeared as suddenly as he had come. Here the story ends, but it is natural to suppose that after this wonderful proof of the favor in which he was held by m powerful a patron the slave was left unmolested, even if he did not, as was so often the case in similar legends, win over the stem master himself to the true faith.
In addition to the winged lion already described, the chief characteristics by which St. Mark may he recognized in works of art are the scroll, streamer or tablet on which are inscribed the words, ‘Pax tibi, Marce, Evangelista meus,’ said to have been spoken by the Savior on His visit to the martyr in prison on the eve of his death, with the pen, the reed or the ink<bora, all in reference to his position as an Evangelist in the first place, and his supposed office of secretary to St. Peter in the second. St. Mark is occasionally represented, as on the old bronze gates of the Basilica of S. Paolo fuori le Mora at Rome, being dragged along by the feet and beaten with a club, or more rarely he is tied to a wild horse which is galloping rapidly along.
Sometimes St. Mark wears the bishop’s robe as having been the first Bishop of Alexandria, and he raises one hand in benediction, whilst he holds a book in the other. Instances occur of the introduction of a barren fig-tree behind him, in allusion to the incident which took place on the way from Bethany, and which he alone of the Evangelists relates. With manifest reference to the tradition respecting the origin of his Gospel, St. Mark is constantly associated with St. Peter, who sometimes stands beside him as if dictating to him, and more rarely is preaching from a pulpit, whilst St. Mark sits below making notes, with his ink-horn at his girdle.
The Cathedral of San Marco is of course peculiarly rich in representations of the patron saint. In the mosaics of the facade are represented the ‘Embarkation of his body at Alexandria,’ its ‘Arrival at Venice,’ and the Veneration of the relics there — the two first subjects executed in the seventeenth, the third in the eighteenth century. In the mosaics, designed by Titian, adorning the vaulting of the entrance-porch, St. Mark appears in his bishop’s robes; in those above the great bronze gates giving access to the nave he is seen on one side of Christ and the Virgin on the other. His marble statue is one of fourteen on the screen shutting off the choir, and within the choir are a series of bronze bas-relief by Sansovino of subjects from his life.
St. Mark also appears in many votive pictures as patron of Venice, notably in the large picture by Titian now in the Sacristy of the Church of S. Maria della Salute, in which he is enthroned between SS. Sebastian, Roch, Cosma and Damiano; in a painting by an unknown hand in the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo at Venice, in which he is presenting the Doge Leonardo Dona to the Virgin; and in a picture in the Berlin Gallery representing him Enthroned with his gospel on his knees, addressing three of the Procuranti of the Cathedral, who are kneeling at his feet.
Another very fine representation of the patron saint of Venice is that now in the Pitti Gallery, Florence, painted on wood by Fra Bartolommeo for his own convent of San Marco, but carried off to Paris in 1799, and there transferred to canvas. In it the Apostle is seated in a niche, with a pen in one hand and a closed book on his knees. He is a handsome man in the prime of life, with a quantity of curling auburn hair and a russet beard. Fra Angelico, the Bellini, and other Italian masters have painted St. Peter dictating to St. Mark or preaching to the people whilst the Evangelist is taking notes. There is a beautiful statue of him by Donatello on the exterior of S. Michele at Florence, and the galleries of that city as well as of Venice are rich in renderings of episodes from the life and legends of this most favorite saint. In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, is a fine ‘Martyrdom of St. Mark’ by Fra Angelico, one of three subjects from the predella of the altar-piece known as the Madonna dei Linajuoli; in the ‘Great Crucifixion’ by the same master in the Chapter-house of San Marco, Florence, St. Mark and St. John the Baptist are introduced on the left of the cross, and in the Brera Gallery, Milan, is a fine composition attributed to Gentile Bellini, representing St. Mark preaching at Alexandria.
In the Brera Gallery, Milan, is a noteworthy picture of the ‘Preaching of St. Mark at Venice’ by Gentile, with touches from the greater Giovanni Bellini; in the Berlin Gallery is a picture by Cima da Conegliano of the ‘Miracle of the healing of Anianus’ related above, and the same subject with the ‘Baptism’ of the future Bishop of Alexandria is treated in the bas-reliefs of the facade of the Scuola di San Marco, Venice, as well as in two pictures by Mansueli in the same building.
The fame of all these interpretations of episodes in the life of St. Mark has, however, been altogether eclipsed by that of the ‘Storm at Sea,’ by Giorgione, sometimes erroneously attributed to Titian, now in the Venice Academy, and the series of compositions painted by Tintoretto for the Scuola di San Marco, but now dispersed, of the ‘Miracle of the Slave,’ the ‘Finding of the Body of St. Mark at Alexandria,’ the ‘Bringing of the Relics to Venice,’ and ‘St. Mark casting out an Unclean Spirit.’
The ’Storm at Sea’ is considered one of Giorgione’s finest works, and tells the story of the miraculous intervention of St. Mark on behalf of his beloved city with wonderful dramatic force. The vessel containing the three patron saints : St. Mark, St. Nicolas, and St. George, rowed by a true Venetian fisherman, is breasting the rapidly-rising waves, amongst a crowd of sporting dolphins, ridden by imps; whilst the phantom ship, manned by demons, is being rapidly consumed by fire, and her unholy crew are endeavoring to save themselves by flinging themselves into the sea, or are dining to the rigging in attitudes of terror. Nearby are two of the boats of the doomed vessel, manned by splendid-looking demons, and in the distance the city of Venice is seen rising peacefully from the lagoon.
In the ‘Miracle of the Slave,’ now in the Venice Academy, and for which there is a fine sketch in the Pinacoteca of Lucca, Tintoretto has represented St. Mark rushing down from Heaven in a blaze of light to the rescue of his tortured votary, whilst the judge, the executioners, and the spectators look on in wondering awe, and the victim alone seems unconscious of what is going on, as he lies exhausted on the ground, his pallid features and limbs contrasting with the glow of color around him. This remarkable composition, the most popular of Tintoretto’s works, has all the life, the animation, the force of drawing, and the depth of coloring characteristic of the master’s best period. In it he realized his own ambition to combine ’il disegno di Michaelagnolo ed il colorito di Tiziano,’ and solved apparently insuperable difficulties of foreshortening; for, in spite of the extraordinary attitude of St. Mark, there is nothing unnatural or forced about it.
Another celebrated picture illustrating the legend of the Storm is that by Bordone, now in the Venice Academy, representing the Presentation of the Ring of St. Mark to Doge Gradenigo, in which the Doge, surrounded by his councilors, awaits the approach of the fisherman at the top of the steps leading up to his Palace, the whole scene presenting a very vivid picture of the Piazza di San Marco as it was in the fifteenth century.
Adapted from: The Saints in Christian Art: The Evangelists, Apostles, and Other Early Saints, By Mrs. Arthur Bell, (London: George Bell & Sons, 1901).