San Mateo: The Tax Collector Who Left Everything
Matthew was sitting at his tax collection booth in Capernaum when Jesus passed by and said two words: "Follow me." Tax collectors in first-century Roman Palestine were among the most despised members of their communities — Jewish collaborators with Roman occupation, with wide latitude to collect more than the official rate and pocket the difference. Matthew would have been well-off, socially isolated, and probably used to being looked through.
Jesus didn't look through him. Matthew got up, left the booth, left the money, and followed. He then threw a banquet for Jesus and invited all his tax-collector friends — the people everyone else had written off — to meet the man who had just looked them in the eye.
He's patron of accountants, bankers, bookkeepers, tax collectors, and all finance professionals — which is to say, he's patron of the people who handle other people's money faithfully every day. He's also one of the four evangelists and the author of the first Gospel. The man who counted coins became the man who counted words that changed the world.
Who This Gift Is For
St. Matthew gifts are a natural fit for: accountants and CPAs, bookkeepers, tax professionals, finance workers, banking and investment professionals, anyone working through busy season (tax season, fiscal year-end), graduates of finance and accounting programs, and anyone who integrates their faith and their professional life in a field that doesn't always feel obviously spiritual. His feast day is September 21st.
Best St. Matthew Gift Ideas
1. St. Matthew Patron Medal for Finance Professionals
His medals typically show Matthew as an evangelist — with a book (the Gospel) and sometimes an angel (his Gospel symbol in Christian iconography). A quality sterling or gold-tone pendant is a discreet personal devotional item for a finance professional to wear under a suit jacket or keep in a desk drawer. A medal given at a graduation from an accounting program or at a career milestone is a meaningful integration of faith and professional identity.
2. "Follow Me" Desk Print
The two words that called Matthew away from his tax booth are among the most consequential in the Gospel: "Follow me." A clean typographic print of this phrase — simple, direct, with or without attribution — makes a meaningful piece for a professional's desk or office. It's a reminder that the most important invitation in anyone's life doesn't come from a performance review or a client call.
3. St. Matthew Tax Season Survival Bundle
A lighthearted but genuine gift for a tax professional during busy season: a St. Matthew medal, a prayer card with the accountant's prayer invoking his intercession, a quality coffee mug, and a handwritten note acknowledging the particular suffering of tax season. The humor works because the saint is real — Matthew literally collected taxes — and the exhaustion of the season is real. Both things can be true.
4. Evangelist's Four Symbols Print
The four Gospels are associated with four symbols in Christian iconography: Matthew (the man or angel), Mark (the lion), Luke (the ox), John (the eagle). A beautifully designed print of the four evangelist symbols — used in illuminated manuscripts and church architecture since the early centuries — makes a striking piece for a study, library, or office. For a Matthew devotee, it places his symbol in its proper theological context.
5. "Go and Do Likewise" Professional Values Card
Matthew's banquet — throwing a party for all the people society had written off and bringing them to meet Jesus — is one of the Gospel's most striking social gestures. A card or print featuring this story alongside the invitation "Go and do likewise" is a professional values statement that reaches beyond the typical corporate mission statement language. For someone in finance or business who wants to integrate their faith into their work ethic, it's a meaningful piece of wall or desk decor.
6. CPA or Finance Graduation Gift Bundle
For a new CPA, a finance graduate, or someone just passing their licensure exams: a St. Matthew medal, a brief card explaining his patronage, a quality pen, and a note that acknowledges both the achievement and the patron who will accompany the career. A graduate who receives a faith-centered professional gift at this milestone often carries it through decades of work.
7. "The First Evangelist" Book Gift
Matthew's Gospel itself is the starting point — the first book of the New Testament, organized deliberately around five major discourses (echoing the five books of Moses), written for a Jewish-Christian audience. A quality Bible open to Matthew's Gospel, with a brief note explaining what makes his Gospel distinctive, is a gift that invites the recipient to read their patron's own work. For a non-reader of scripture, this might be the invitation that makes it happen.
8. September 21st Feast Day Recognition
September 21st is Matthew's feast day — coinciding with the end of summer, the beginning of the fall quarter, and often a meaningful moment in the professional calendar. A feast day gift at this time — even something small, like the medal and a card — is an acknowledgment that your accountant, bookkeeper, or finance-professional friend has a patron who understands exactly what they do and why it matters.
The Patron of Faithful Stewardship
Matthew's story is about what happens when someone who handles money every day is asked: but what would you do if the thing you were asked to follow had nothing to do with what you collect? He left the booth. He left the collection. He went to the banquet and invited everyone he knew who was also regarded as not worth much.
The patron of accountants is not the patron of spreadsheets. He's the patron of people who handle other people's resources faithfully, and who know that the work of the hands and the work of the soul are not separate. Give a gift that says as much.