Novena to St Matthew

The novena to St Matthew is a nine-day prayer to the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew — the tax collector whom Our Lord called from his money-table with two words, "Follow me" — asking his intercession for our needs, and most often for financial help, work, and the right ordering of money. It is prayed above all in the nine days leading up to his feast on 21 September, though it may be said at any time of pressing need. Because St Matthew left a lucrative trade to follow Christ, and because the Church has long honoured him as the patron of accountants, bankers, tax collectors, and all who handle money, he is the saint to whom the faithful bring their finances. Below we give the full novena, the nine days, the form for financial help, the saint's own story, and the traditional prayer of his feast.

The traditional prayer of St Matthew's feast

Before the modern novena forms, the Church already prayed to St Matthew each year in the Collect of his feast. This is the oldest and surest prayer to him, and it may fittingly open each day of the novena:

May we be helped, O Lord, by the prayers of the blessed Apostle and Evangelist Matthew: that what our own weakness cannot obtain may be given us by his intercession. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

That single sentence holds the whole logic of a novena: our weakness cannot obtain what we need, so we ask a friend of God to obtain it for us. If you would like to understand what a novena is and why it runs nine days, see our short guide to what is a novena.

The full novena to St Matthew

This is the nine-day novena in its common form. Say it once each day for nine days — traditionally the nine days from 12 September to 20 September, so that it closes on the eve of the feast. Begin and end with the Sign of the Cross, name your intention where marked, and add the concluding prayers.

Sign of the Cross. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening prayer

God of mercy, you chose a tax collector, Saint Matthew, to share the dignity of the Apostles. By his example and prayers help us to follow Christ and remain faithful in your service. We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Prayer to Saint Matthew

Dear Saint Matthew, in your Gospel you portray Jesus as the longed-for Messiah who fulfilled the Prophets of the Old Covenant, and as the new Lawgiver who founded the Church of the New Covenant. Obtain for us the grace to see Jesus living in His Church and to follow His teachings in our lives on earth, so that we may live forever with Him in heaven.

You gave up great earthly wealth to follow Christ, and He has honoured you as the patron of all who labour over money and accounts. Intercede now for me in my present need. (Here state your request.)

Saint Matthew, apostle and evangelist, pray for us. Amen.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Sign of the Cross. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The nine days: a meditation on the Beatitudes

Because it was St Matthew who first set down the Sermon on the Mount, a beautiful traditional form of his novena takes one of the eight Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) for each of the nine days, reading it, resting on it, and then asking the Evangelist's help. Add each day's Beatitude to the prayers above:

• Day 1 — "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3)
• Day 2 — "Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land." (Matthew 5:4)
• Day 3 — "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5:5)
• Day 4 — "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall have their fill." (Matthew 5:6)
• Day 5 — "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." (Matthew 5:7)
• Day 6 — "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8)
• Day 7 — "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9)
• Day 8 — "Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:10)
• Day 9 — "Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you... Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven." (Matthew 5:11-12)

The first Beatitude belongs to the whole novena: St Matthew, who was rich, became poor in spirit at a word, and so he is the perfect intercessor for anyone who must learn to hold money loosely and trust God with it.

The St Matthew novena for financial help

The most sought form of this devotion is the nine-day novena to St Matthew for financial help — for debt, for want of work, for a business, for the wisdom to manage what one has. There is nothing unworthy in bringing money to a saint: St Matthew handled money for a living, gave it all up for Christ, and is the Church's own patron of finances. To pray the novena for this intention, use the prayers above and name your need plainly at the marked place — for example:

Saint Matthew, patron of all who deal in money, you know both the weight of riches and the freedom of leaving them for Christ. Obtain for me from God the help I need in my finances: relief of this debt, honest work, and the grace to be a faithful steward of every gift, seeking first the Kingdom of God, that all these things may be added unto me. (Name your particular need.) Pray for me, that I may never make money my master, but hold it always in the service of God and my neighbour. Amen.

A word of order belongs here. To pray for money is good; to pray as though the novena were a formula that forces God's hand is superstition, which the Church condemns. Our Lord Himself, in the very Gospel Matthew wrote, warns that we cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24), and bids us "seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). The St Matthew novena for finances is rightly prayed by one who asks for daily bread while holding his heart free — as its patron did. For provision and honest work you may also turn to the foster-father of Our Lord in the novena to St Joseph, and for causes that seem beyond all remedy, to the novena to St Jude.

How to pray this novena

A novena is nine days of steady, trusting prayer, not a magic count. Keep these few things and it will be prayed well:

• When to start. To close the novena on the eve of the feast, begin on 12 September and pray through 20 September, with the feast itself on 21 September. But any nine consecutive days will do when a need is pressing.
• A fixed time. Say the prayers at the same hour each day — morning or evening — so the nine days become a small rule of life.
• One intention. Name a single, clear intention and carry it through all nine days.
• Disposition. Pray in humility and submission: Thy will be done. Ask for the grace you name, and be ready to receive instead the better thing God chooses to send. Where you can, join the novena to Holy Mass, Communion, or a decade of the Rosary.

Who is St Matthew the Apostle?

St Matthew — called Levi before Our Lord renamed him — was a Galilean, the son of Alphaeus, who sat at the custom-house by the Sea of Galilee at Capernaum, gathering tolls for the Romans. To his countrymen a tax collector, or publican, was a byword for sin and collaboration, shunned as a public sinner. Yet as Jesus passed by He looked on this despised man and said simply, "Follow me." And Matthew, in the words of his own Gospel, "rising up, followed him" (Matthew 9:9) — leaving his table and his money on the spot. He then made a great feast in his house for Our Lord, and when the Pharisees murmured that Jesus ate with publicans and sinners, the Master answered, "They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill... For I am not come to call the just, but sinners" (Matthew 9:12-13). St Matthew is thus, forever, the trophy of that mercy — the tax collector made an Apostle.

He was numbered among the Twelve, and after Pentecost he preached first to the Jews of Judea. It is the constant tradition of the Church that before leaving Palestine he wrote, in Hebrew (that is, Aramaic), the first of the four Gospels — set down expressly to prove to the Jews that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah, the son of David and son of Abraham, in whom the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled. This is why his Gospel opens with the human genealogy of Christ, and why he, alone of the four, preserves the Sermon on the Mount in its fullness. In Christian art his symbol among the four living creatures is the man, or the angel, because his Gospel begins with the human descent of the Word made flesh.

Tradition then sends St Matthew far afield as a missionary — to Ethiopia, and by other accounts to Persia and the lands of the East — where he laboured many years and, most accounts hold, won the crown of martyrdom, some say slain at the altar while offering the Holy Sacrifice. The Church keeps his feast on 21 September, ranking him among the Apostles and Evangelists. Because he was a man of the money-table who gave all for Christ, he is the patron of accountants, bankers, tax collectors, bookkeepers, customs officers, and all who work with money — and the natural intercessor for anyone in financial straits. For his fellow Apostle and Evangelist, see the novena to St John the Apostle; for the great missionary of the East, the novena to St Francis Xavier.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is St Matthew the patron saint of?

St Matthew is the patron of accountants, bankers, tax collectors, bookkeepers, customs and financial officers, money managers, and stockbrokers — in short, of everyone whose work is money — because he himself was a tax collector before Our Lord called him. He is also patron of the cities of Salerno in Italy, where his relics rest, and Osorno in Chile. For this reason he is the saint most invoked for financial needs.

What is the St Matthew novena for financial help?

It is the ordinary nine-day novena to St Matthew, prayed with a financial intention named at the place marked in the prayer — for relief of debt, for work, for a business, or for the wisdom to manage money well. Because St Matthew handled money and then left it all to follow Christ, he is the fitting patron for such requests. Pray it as given above, asking plainly but in submission to God's will.

When should I start the novena to St Matthew?

To finish on the eve of his feast, begin on 12 September and pray through 20 September, with St Matthew's feast falling on 21 September. If your need is urgent, however, you may pray any nine days in a row — the power of a novena is in nine days of faithful prayer, not in the calendar.

When is St Matthew's feast day?

St Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, is honoured on 21 September in the traditional Roman calendar and in the modern one alike. In the older calendar his feast also falls within the September Ember Days. It is the natural day on which to close the novena. To know which feasts bind the faithful to Mass, see our guide to the holy days of obligation.

How did St Matthew die?

Scripture does not record his death. The constant tradition of the Church is that St Matthew, after long missionary labours in Ethiopia and the East, died a martyr — several ancient accounts say he was struck down at the altar while offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. A minority of legends have him dying in peace at a great age. The Church honours him with the red of a martyr and the title of Evangelist.

Why did St Matthew write his Gospel?

He wrote to convince his fellow Jews that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah foretold by the Prophets — the son of David and son of Abraham in whom the Old Covenant is fulfilled. His is the first of the four Gospels, composed originally in Hebrew (Aramaic), and it preserves the fullest account of Our Lord's teaching, including the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes on which the traditional form of this novena meditates.

Is there a printable PDF of the St Matthew novena?

The complete novena is given in full on this page — the opening prayer, the prayer to St Matthew, the financial-help petition, and the nine Beatitudes — so it can be prayed straight from your screen or copied out for the nine days. The Iter Fidei app also carries the novenas, litanies, and prayers with day-by-day reminders and audio, so you can pray the whole devotion from your phone without a printed sheet.

Pray this novena to St Matthew with day-by-day reminders and audio in the Iter Fidei app, alongside the litanies and prayers of the whole Catholic tradition. Download it here.

Sources. Holy Scripture — the Gospel according to St Matthew, especially the call of Matthew (Matthew 9:9-13), the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), and Our Lord on God and mammon (Matthew 6:24, 33); the Collect of the Feast of St Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist (21 September), from the Roman Missal; Butler's Lives of the Saints (St Matthew, 21 September); the traditional novena prayer to St Matthew as carried in Catholic prayer-books.