September 21 is the feast day of St. Matthew the Apostle, the patron of this church when the parish was first established in 1906 under Pope St. Pius X. St. Matthew was known as Levi when he worked the tax-collector booth, gathering tribute money for the Roman Emperor, and for Herod, the king the Romans had appointed. As a member of the despised class of “publicans,” Levi would have been considered a collaborator with the Roman overlords, and thus beneath contempt by his fellow Jews — especially the Pharisees and the Zealots, who considered the publicans to be traitors, thieves and extortioners. Our Lord chose not only Levi to be an apostle, but also the zealot Simon. At Christ’s call, Levi immediately abandoned the tax-collector’s table to follow Him, ultimately giving his life as a martyr. It is indeed ironic that St. Matthew, detested as he was by his own people, should become the evangelist who would write the first of the Gospel accounts in Aramaic, directed to his fellow Jews. At Immaculate Conception Church, we still consider St. Matthew to be a patron of the parish, and still invoke his intercession in the orations at the altar. “May we be helped, O Lord, by the prayers of thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, that what we cannot obtain by our efforts, may be given to his through his intercession. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost. Amen!”