Saint Matthias Medal Necklace - Apostle, Patron of Alcoholics, the Chosen Replacement

About Saint Matthias

Matthias was not one of the original twelve. He was chosen after the resurrection, after Judas had betrayed Christ and was dead, to fill the place that had been left empty among the apostles. The selection was made by prayer and by lot - the community gathered, named two candidates, prayed, and drew. Matthias was chosen. He accepted, took his place among the eleven, and went on to preach the Gospel as a full apostle of Christ until his martyrdom.

That is almost everything the New Testament records about him directly. He appears by name in Acts 1, is chosen, and then the narrative moves on. What he did with the calling he received is documented in tradition rather than Scripture: he preached in Judea, in Ethiopia, and possibly in the region around the Caspian Sea. He was martyred - the axe he is depicted holding in art is the instrument of his execution, though some accounts name a sword. His relics are venerated in the Cathedral of Saint Matthias in Trier, Germany, the only apostolic shrine north of the Alps.

He was not chosen first. He was chosen to fill a broken place, by a community that prayed and trusted the outcome to God. That is the entirety of his entry into apostolic history, and it has made him the patron of a specific kind of person ever since.

His Patronage

Matthias is the patron saint of alcoholics, of those in recovery, and of people who are beginning again after something has broken down. He is also the patron of carpenters and tailors, and is invoked for perseverance in difficult vocations.

His patronage of alcoholics is not widely publicized, but it is longstanding and theologically grounded in his story. He was chosen to replace someone who failed catastrophically - to step into wreckage and hold the line. Recovery from alcoholism is not a beginning. It is a replacement - of one way of living with another, chosen deliberately, one day at a time, after something has already collapsed. Matthias is the apostle for that specific situation. He is sought by people in recovery, by those who love someone in recovery, and by anyone who has had to rebuild a life that fell apart and who needs a saint who understands what it means to be given a second assignment rather than a first one.

His feast day is May 14. He was chosen last, and he held his place for the rest of his life.

The Saint Matthias Medal

This medal depicts Matthias full-face: bearded, direct, composed. He holds a raised axe in his right hand - his traditional symbol and the instrument of his martyrdom - and an open book in his left, referencing the Gospel he was chosen to carry. A halo frames his head. The border is a double-ring Celtic knotwork pattern, continuous and interlocking, with no beginning and no end. The frontal composition is unusual in this catalog. Most saint medals show their subjects in profile. Matthias faces the viewer directly. The metal forms the illustration itself - black ink is applied to the pendant surface and the gold or silver shows through as the image. A shatterproof liquid glass coating seals the surface.

Personalization and Engraving

The optional engraving on the reverse is rendered in Tangerine cursive. Two lines, up to 20 characters each. Two lines that fit:

Line 1: "He was chosen."
Line 2: "So were you."

For a baptism gift, most people engrave the child's name and baptism date. For a recovery milestone, a name and a sobriety date. For a confirmation gift, the recipient's name and confirmation date.