Saint John of Matha

Memorial

• 8 February

Profile

Born to the Provencal nobility. Educated at Aix, France, then lived as a hermit at Faucon, France. Earned a doctorate in theology at Paris, France. Ordained in 1197.

At the first Mass he celebrated, John received a vision of an angel clothed in white with a red and blue cross on his breast. The angel placed his hands on the heads of two slaves who knelt beside him. Later, when sitting beside a stream with fellow hermit, Saint Felix of Valois, the two were given the vision of a white stag between whose antlers was suspended a blue and red cross. With the encouragement of Pope Innocent III, he founded the Hospitaler Order of the Most Holy Trinity and of Captives (Trinitarians or Redemptionists) to ransom Christian prisoners of the Moors (the Mathurins). The congregation received papal approval in 1209. The clothing seen in the vision of the angel became the habit of the order, the Scapular of the Most Holy Trinity was instituted, the Order was placed under the protection of Mary under the title of Our Lady of Good Remedy, and John was the first superior general. Hundreds of prisoners were ransomed and returned to their homes.

Because John’s life contains such good story elements (visions, prisoners, rescued knights, etc.), John became the topic for several biographies in the Middle Ages, many of these were loaded heavily with fiction. Today there are around 600 members of the Order working in prison ministries in over twenty countries, and they recently celebrated their 800 year anniversary.

Born

• 23 June 1160 at Faucon, Provence, France

Died

• 12 December 1223 at Rome, Italy of natural causes
• relics in Madrid, Spain

Canonized

• 21 October 1666 by Pope Alexander VII (cultus confirmed)

Representation

• purse
• man in Trinitarian habit (white with blue and red cross on the breast) with chains in his hands or at his feet, captives near him, and his mitre at his feet
• receiving the scapular from the Holy Trinity
• with Our Lady of Good Remedy who hands him a bag of money
• with Saint Felix of Valois
• with the angel and the two captives from his vision in the background

Additional Information

• Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
• Catholic Online
• Katherine Rabenstein
• Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler
• New Catholic Dictionary
• Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
• Pictorial Lives of the Saints

MLA Citation

• “Saint John of Matha“. Saints.SQPN.com. 8 February 2013. Web. 22 May 2013. <>