Collect for St. Matthias' Day (1928 BCP)

Collect for St. Matthias' Day (1928 BCP) is the appointed collect for February 24 in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It commemorates God's choice of Matthias to fill the apostolic place abandoned by Judas and teaches the Church to pray for preservation from false apostles and for faithful pastoral rule.

Text of the Collect

O 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.

The collect has two movements. Its address remembers the scriptural narrative: Judas's apostasy made a vacancy, and God chose Matthias to be numbered with the Twelve. Its petition turns that memory into prayer for the whole Church: deliverance from false apostolic claims and faithful government by true pastors.

Appointed Readings

The Epistle is Acts 1.15-26. The 1928 BCP prints the account of Judas, the apostolic vacancy, the prayer to the Lord who knows hearts, the lot, and Matthias being numbered with the eleven. The collect's language is directly drawn from this appointed lesson.

Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.

The lesson does not make apostolic ministry an act of ambition or party preference. The Church identifies qualified witnesses, then prays that the Lord will show the one whom he has chosen.

And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.

The Gospel is St. Matthew 11.25-30. It places apostolic election under Christ's revelation of the Father and under his meek yoke. The collect's prayer for true pastors is therefore not a prayer for bare institutional continuity; it is a prayer that the Church's ministry would remain under Christ's own lordship and gentleness.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Historical Setting

St. Matthias' Day was retained among the Prayer Book holy days that commemorate New Testament saints. Procter and Frere describe the Reformation handling of the saints' day propers as a mixture of retained ancient lessons and newly composed collects.

When the Kalendar was reformed it was necessary to compose a considerable number of new Collects, since many of the old Collects were mainly prayers for the saints' intercession. The Epistles and Gospels that had been read on these days were generally retained.

Within that pattern, Procter and Frere identify the St. Matthias collect as a Reformation composition rather than a simple translation of an older Latin collect.

The Collect for S. Matthias' Day which was written in 1549.

Evan Daniel gives a compact nineteenth-century summary of the collect's two-part structure:

It consists of-- 1. A commemoration of the choosing of Matthias in the place of Judas; 2. A prayer that the Church may be always preserved from false apostles, and ordered [ruled] and guided by faithful and true pastors.

Daniel also explains why the appointed Epistle and Gospel fit the collect:

The Epistle (Acts i. 15-26) contains the account of the election by lot of Matthias in the place of Judas. The Gospel (St. Matt. xi. 25-30) contains our Lord's thanksgiving for the revelation of the mysteries of the gospel to the simple-hearted.

Clause by Clause

"Into the place of the traitor Judas" is deliberately severe language. The collect does not sentimentalize the apostolic college. It remembers that office can be betrayed and that the Church must be preserved not only from external enemies but from false ministry within the visible body.

Goulburn contrasts the older Sarum petition with the Prayer Book collect. The Reformation collect keeps the biblical commemoration of Matthias but redirects the petition away from saintly intercession toward the Church's present need for faithful ministry.

The Collect for St. Matthias's Day in the Missal of Sarum recited, like our own, as the basis of its petition, the fact of God's having chosen this saint to a fellowship in the college of the Apostles; but the petition itself, "Grant, we beseech thee, that by his intercession we may ever experience thy fatherly compassion in what concerns us," was objectionable, as recognizing the doctrine of the intercession and patronage of saints, and was exchanged in 1549 for one not only much more suitable to the fact rehearsed, but greatly demanded at all times by the needs of the Church.

"Didst choose thy faithful servant Matthias" is not merely biography. In Acts 1 the apostles use judgment, set forward two men, and then pray. The collect therefore holds together ecclesial discernment and divine election.

God, though His own agency must be supreme in the appointment of His ministers, does not see fit to supersede those faculties of judgment and discernment with which He has endowed His people.

"Preserved from false Apostles" turns Judas's fall into a standing ecclesial warning. Goulburn reads this petition through St. Paul's language in 2 Corinthians and through the Lord's tests of doctrine and fruit.

Greatly is the prayer enriched by this reference to St. Paul's severe notice of his detractors in 2 Cor. xi. 13, 14, 15: "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ."

"Ordered and guided" asks for more than passive preservation. The Church is to be ruled in good order and steered through danger, controversy, and change.

The words "ordering" and "guidance" yield rather different ideas. "Ordering" denotes rather the normal administration of a diocese by its chief pastor; "guidance" rather the function of the helmsman, who turns the ship whithersoever he wills, than that of the captain who presides over the internal economy of the crew.

"Faithful and true pastors" completes the collect by naming the positive gift sought. In Goulburn's reading, "true" concerns the pastor's mission and motives, while "faithful" concerns his stewardship toward the flock.

A "true" pastor is one who has not only received a true mission from the great "Shepherd and Bishop of souls," but one whose exercise of the ministry is prompted by sincere motives, the desire of furthering Christ's cause and the spiritual welfare of men, not ambition, or the desire of human praise.

The collect is therefore a prayer for apostolic continuity under judgment. It remembers that the Lord repaired the breach made by Judas, then asks that the same Lord preserve the Church from counterfeits and give her pastors whose doctrine, rule, and motives are faithful to Christ.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
• Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Saint Matthias in Anglican Commemoration

External Links

• 1928 Book of Common Prayer Standard Book PDF
• Society of Archbishop Justus comparative transcription for St. Matthias' Day
• Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter XIII
• Goulburn, The Collects of the Book of Common Prayer
• Daniel, The Prayer-book: Its History, Language, and Contents