Faithful Saint Matthias

The red-letter feast of Saint Matthias is designated for February 24 in every American Book of Common Prayer, the same date designated by the Church of England from 1549 to 1662. This year it is transferred from Sunday to Monday (February 25).

Since 1789, the American Book of Common Prayer has used this (lightly) modernized version of the 1549-1662 collect:

ALMIGHTY God, who into the place of the traitor Judas didst choose thy faithful servant Matthias to be of the number of the twelve Apostles; Grant that thy Church, being alway preserved from false Apostles, may be ordered and guided by faithful and true pastors; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Through the 1960s, the Catholic church celebrated February 24 but today the US Catholic Church celebrates May 14. Today the Church of England celebrates on  May 14 (or February 24 as an alternate).

Naturally, the Epistle reading is Acts 1:15-26, where the apostles choose Matthias (over Joseph Barsabbas) to replace Judas. From 1549-1928, the Gospel is Matthew 11:25-30 (“my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”), but the 1979 BCP uses other readings.

What is an appropriate hymn? The Catholic Culture website suggests stanzas from the Menaea (Eastern Breviary) and includes these verses

O blessed Mathias! spiritual Eden! thou didst flow, like a full river, from the divine fountain; thou didst water the earth with thy mystic rivulets, and make it fruitful. Do thou, therefore, beseech the Lord that he grant peace and much mercy to our souls.

O apostle Mathias! thou didst complete the sacred college, from which Judas had fallen; and by the power of the Holy Ghost, thou didst put to flight the darkness of idolatry by the admirable lightnings of thy wise words. Do thou now beseech the Lord that he grant peace and much mercy to our souls.

It attributes it to a translation by John Mason Neale’s Hymns of the Eastern Church, but I can’t find it in my 1882 edition. So instead, I kept digging to other sources.

Hymnal 1982

Hymnal 1982 has a unique (and I would say admirable) solution to minor feast days: Hymn #231, “By all your saints still striving.” It includes two fixed verses, and a variable middle verse for one of 12 days (St Andrew, St Thomas, St Stephen, St John, Holy Innocents, Confession of St Peter, Conversion of St Paul, St Matthias, St Joseph, St Mark, St Philip/St James, St Barnabas).

The tune is King’s Lynn by Ralph Vaughan Williams, an English folk tune adaptation first published in The English Hymnal. It was originally used with “O God of Earth and Altar,” by GK Chesterton (TEH #562), which is also in Hymnal 1940 (#521) and H82 (#591).

The hymn is adapted from an 1864 text by Horatio Nelson, editor of the Salisbury Hymn-Book (1857), later the Sarum Hymnal (1868) — perhaps the most successful of the Hymnal Noted knock-offs. Nelson’s 19-verse hymn was originally titled “For all thy saints in warfare,” but that was too militaristic for H82. His original text

From all Thy saints in warfare,
For all Thy saints at rest,
To Thee, O blessèd Jesus,
All praises be addressed;
Thou, Lord, didst win the battle,
That they might conquerors be;
Their crowns of living glory
Are lit with rays from Thee.

became verse 1 of Hymn 231:

By all your saints still striving,
for all your saints at rest,
your holy Name, O Jesus,
for evermore be blessed.
You rose, our king victorious,
that they might wear the crown
and every shine in splendor
reflected from your throne.

H82 preserves almost intact Nelson’s final, doxological verse:

Then praise we God the Father,
And praise we God the Son,
And God the Holy Spirit,
Eternal Three in One;
Till all the ransomed number
Fall down before the throne,
And honor, power, and glory,
Ascribe to God alone.

The middle part of Nelson’s hymn makes direct (but unnamed) reference to major NT saints, including John the Baptist, Peter, Paul and the gospel writers. Hymnal 1982 seems to keep many of the original Nelson verses — including Holy Innocents, Peter, Paul, Mark, Barnabas — but explicitly adds their names for the less Biblically literate 20th century.

The Nelson’s text for St. Matthias was

Lord, Thine abiding presence
Directs the wondrous choice
For one in place of Judas
The faithful now rejoice.
Thy Church from false apostles
Forevermore defend,
And by Thy parting promise
Be with her to the end.

which Hymnal 1982 made into

For one in place of Judas,
the apostles sought God's choice
the lot fell to Matthias
for whom we now rejoice
May we like true apostles
your holy church defend
and not betray our calling
but serve you to the end.

Tune: St. Matthias

Finally, William Henry Monk (1823-1889), music editor of Hymns Ancient & Modern, wrote a tune St. Matthias, one of more than 70 that he composed. Naturally, it appeared first in Hymns A&M for

• #28 (2nd tune): “Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go”
• #191: “Jesu, my Lord, my God, my All”
• #348: “Behold us, Lord, before Thee met”
• #357: “How blessèd, from the bonds of sin”

#28 survives as an evening hymn in Hymnal 1940 (#182). However, neither the hymn nor any version of the tune appears in The English Hymnal, the New English Hymnal, Hymnal 1982 or Book of Common Praise 2017.

19th Century Hymn for St. Matthias

Perhaps more intriguing in A&M is #408, the only hymn in this most Anglo-Catholic of hymnals specifically for St. Matthias the Apostle. To the tune of Sherborne (also by Monk), the text explicitly links the Matthias story to that of the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-19):

Bishop of the souls of men,
When the foeman’s step is nigh,
When the wolf lays wait by night
For the lambs continually,
Watch, O Lord, about us keep,
Guard us, Shepherd of the sheep.

When the hireling flees away,
Caring only for his gold,
And the gate unguarded stands
At the entrance to the fold,
Stand, O Lord, Thy flock before
Thou the guardian, Thou the door.

Lord, whose guiding finger ruled
In the casting of the lot,
That Thy Church might fill the throne
Of the lost Iscariot,
In our trouble ever thus
Stand, good Master, nigh to us.

When the saints their order take
In the New Jerusalem,
And Matthias stands elect,
Give us part and lot with him,
Where in Thine own dwelling place
We may witness face to face.

The tune is unfamiliar but has straightforward voice leading. The words are completely appropriate. So for an evensong on St. Matthias’ day, this would be my first choice.