St. Matthias the Apostle
Patron of alcoholics, carpenters, tailors
Saint Matthias was the disciple chosen by lot from among those 'who had been with us all the time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,' to complete the number of the Twelve after the defection of Judas. The election, recorded in the first chapter of Acts, is the model of every later ecclesial discernment: prayer in common, casting of lots, and the trust that the Holy Spirit speaks through the apostolic college. Tradition holds that he preached in Cappadocia and Ethiopia and was martyred by beheading. His relics were brought to Trier in the fourth century, where the Benedictine abbey of Saint Matthias still guards them — the only apostolic tomb north of the Alps.