Acts of Andrew and Matthias

The Acts of Andrew and Matthias (Latin: Acta Andreae et Matthiae apud Anthropophagos, "The Acts of Andrew and Matthias among the Anthropophagi") is a dramatic story featuring the Apostles Andrew and Matthias. It is an episode in wider apocryphal stories of apostolic acts. Some scholars believed the episode to have originated from the lost original Acts of Andrew, but later scholarship suggests it was an independent tradition that was only later compiled together with the Acts of Andrew in some regions. The original language of the story is uncertain, but was probably Koine Greek. In the story, the apostles Andrew and Matthias (sometimes referred to as "Matthaeus") have an adventure in a city of human-eating cannibals during a journey. It is written as a thriller with various gory details; the pair witness and experience torture and threatened consumption by the cannibals. With the aid of various prayers and miracles, Matthias escapes, and Andrew eventually converts the city to Christianity. The narrative is generally understood to have no historical value, and is closer to a heroic romance than anything based on actual Christian missionary work.