Saint Matthew: "don't go there empty-handed"  

 

Matthew, St (fl. 1st century AD), in the New Testament, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. According to ecclesiastical tradition, he was the author of the First Gospel and therefore one of the four evangelists. Little is known about Matthew.  

For a detailed, albeit slanted, study of this saint see New Advent Encyclopedia.  See below for more links. 

Several saints in the districts of Coimbra and Viseu, namely Saint Matthew, Saint Simon, Saint Bartholomew, and Saint Amaro, are famous for one thing: “They only accept things that have been stolen”. This is an exaggeration so we will correct it: “They accept things that have been stolen”, or “They are very demanding; they demand things even if they have been stolen”. From this idea of being “demanding” arose the idea of “unscrupulous saint”, which appears to have been, in the past, an insult. Of all the saints that are known for being “vengeful” these are said to “demand stolen things”.  

It is important to point out that the titular saints of the communities are called “patron” (the Catholic term is titular or “orago”—from oracle, meaning patron saint of a church). Just as there were feudal lords that were “patrons” who had “vassals”. Both were owed tithes. Many chapels in the Beira region have granaries and chests under their roofs for people to deposit the tithes of the harvests. The saints can also be owners of vast lands, rented from the neighbors for prices established by the organizations of brotherhood. In ancient times the gods were seen as chiefs of clans that protected the community against the actions of neighboring communities. Therefore, even today the saints of a village can oppose the saints of another village, and they are often saints with the same name. Saint Thomas of Mira, of Cantanhede and of Ançiã are reciprocal enemies; Saint Matthew of Soure and Cantanhede also.  

Saint Matthew is associated with the fairs at the end of the harvests of September. Because of his position in the Catholic calendar at this time, the saint has taken on a rural personality: part of the harvest should be given to him. Saint Matthew of Soure is like Baal of the Phoenicians or Yahweh of the Hebrews. His power (or fear of him) is known all over the region. He receives worship from his numerous subjects (subjects is preferable to worshippers, because he is more feared than loved) in a beautiful rustic chapel of medieval design surrounded by a porch, on a pleasant hill near Soure looking out on the fields of the region. He is the “protector” of the fields. The fields bear fruit or dry up according to his will (depending on how he is treated); the fields are his, the rural people plough them as if they were on loan, remaining obligated to give tributes or tithes on the harvests.

Since the harvests are due to his good will, and also because he has succeeded the ancient lords of the region, Saint Matthew “requires that they pay” (that is the expression), even if it is the product of a robbery. Because of this, his chapels and respective porches have been changed into storage bins for every kind of small thing, most of which is stolen.  

The effort of the local clergy to abolish this custom has been great, but in vain, because it derives from the relationship with the divinity and appears to be older than the apostle and evangelist Saint Matthew. In the register, distributed to the pilgrims, those responsible for the church wrote these words: “When you go to Saint Matthew, on the occasion of his festival, do not take anything stolen, or anything that is worthless. If a friend does you a great or a small favor would you be capable of giving him something ugly or worthless? But if you insist on offering something worthless or bad you do not please the saint and you offend God. Everything that is shameful, nasty and contemptuous is not wanted by the saint, but is the work of the devil.”  

On the days of the fair and festival, in September, the chapel is literally invaded by a sea of humanity. As these people can’t go to this place empty-handed, and as they don’t always have something they can give, they leave all kinds of small things, some of which are stolen, on the porch or in the sacristy.  

But it is not because of this strange tradition that established order has been subverted. These things are products stolen from along the roads or in the fair, which the village celebrates in the saint’s name. Usually they are special things, a bunch of grapes, an ear of corn, a small cheese, a squash, a bottle of water, an onion, a string of onions or garlic, a packet of rice or sugar, a can of tuna, etc. and, above all, many bouquets of wild flowers.  

Besides the piles of these small things, the chapel is transformed, on this fair day, into an agricultural storage shed or barn. Sacks of wheat, barley, corn or potatoes are emptied into the bins or chests found in the sacristy (we don’t know if these things were also stolen), while many people prefer to give a gift in money, which is still called “ little alms”, despite the embarrassment of giving such a “payment”.  

They also offer the saint things that are rather strange: whoever is suffering from an infestation of flies at home, or fleas, will give the saint a handful of flies, or fleas, in a little bag or a jar so that the bugs will be gone from his home; whoever fears that the rain will be too much this year offers him a bottle of water; if the land is rocky and unproductive, they give him a bag of pebbles or sand, and so on. The custom comes from the Bible: tumors of gold against the tumors of the plague and rats of gold against the rodents, derived later into the offering of carnation flowers against the “carnations” (cravos in Portuguese) or lymph nodes, and wax bladders against the “bladders” (bexiga in Portuguese) or small pox.  

This saint is depicted as having a terrible countenance: bearded and “ugly”. At the door of the chapel and under the porch we find the tomb and the statue of another strange “saint” called Saint Rijo (T.N.--not officially canonized, perhaps a local figure) who, according to the sheet of paper given to the pilgrims, first ploughed the fields nearby and had the idea of building the chapel: The subjects of Saint Matthew either give their “gifts” in the sacristy or leave them on the tomb and before the image of this bizarre Saint Rijo, who has an even more terrifying appearance than his patron; the name “rijo” which means “rigid” goes well with the personage. It is in front of this saint perched at the door like a guard that people pray without going into the chapel. Before the image, the author observed that the faithful became nervous, which is unusual in the village milieu, and another man demonstrated light but visible attacks of being in a trance.  

Saint Rijo is, at the same time, guard, manager, lackey, and foreman for Saint Matthew. This is what we can deduce from the sheet of paper for Saint Rijo handed out in the chapel. It says: “Never go to Saint Matthew / with your bag or your hands empty / as little or much you take / give it with great happiness”. “Saint Rijo is at the door / don’t forget to greet him / he was the one who had the chapel built / for you to pray in”. “It was Saint Rijo who tamed / the lands of Saint Matthew / with his sweat he watered them / but his soul was with God.” “He worked until he died / and until his death he called on Saint Matthew his godfather / who went with him to heaven / Out of humility he refused / to stay inside the chapel / but there at the door he watches / those who come inside”.  

This offering to Saint Matthew is not the paying of a “promise”, but the fulfillment of an absolute obligation to give anything, according to the “blessing” received. By “blessing”, however, we are not referring only to material goods or products of the granary; in most of the cases of poverty the simple gift of life is a blessing. Whoever received cereals or other goods takes what is his and according to his generosity; whoever has nothing to give, steals. Taking something is absolutely obligatory. Whether the item is your own or the product of robbery, what Saint Matthew wants is for the debt of the “blessing” to be symbolically satisfied. Saint Matthew, like an ancient Semite god, is only interested in the gesture of the offering, whatever it might be. A simple ear of corn can be worth as much as a field of corn, as full homage and as a proof of recognition of his authority. What is important is the gesture of vassalage.  

This is why people offer Saint Matthew and many other saints of the region economically insignificant things, “worthless” according to the sheet of paper; wild flowers, carnations, roof tiles, salt etc. As the value of the offering is in the gesture and not in its economic value or in the origin of the offered thing, sacred robbery is a frequent custom in the rural people. Saint Benedict “demands” (or he “also accepts”) stolen roof tiles; Saint Simon, in the town of Tondela, accepts, on his feast day in October, “anything stolen, ears of corn, or even hams”; Saint Bartholomew and Saint Amaro also accept, among other stolen things, pine cones, nuts, and dry figs.     

For more links on Saint Matthew the Apostle :