Saint Timothy
January 24
SAINT
TIMOTHY
Bishop of
Ephesus
and Martyr
(†97)
Saint Timothy was a convert of
Saint Paul, born at Lystra in Asia
Minor. His mother was a daughter of
Israel, but his father was a pagan,
and though Timothy had read the Scriptures from his childhood, he
had never been circumcised. On the arrival of Saint Paul at Lystra the youthful Timothy,
with his mother and grandmother, eagerly embraced the faith. Seven
years later, when the Apostle again visited the country, the boy had
grown into manhood. His good heart, his austerities and zeal had won
the esteem of all around him, and holy men were prophesying great
things of the fervent youth. Saint Paul at once saw his fitness for the
work of an evangelist, and Timothy was ordained a priest. From that
time on he was the constant and much-beloved fellow-worker of the
Apostle.
In company with Saint Paul
he visited the cities of Asia Minor and Greece, once hastening on ahead as a
trusted messenger, at another time lingering behind to confirm in
the faith a recently founded church. Eventually he was made the
first Bishop of Ephesus; and there he received the two epistles of
his master which bear his name, the first written from Macedonia and
the second from Rome, where Saint Paul from his prison expresses his
longing desire to see his “dearly beloved son,” once more, if
possible, before his death. It is not certain whether Saint Timothy
arrived in Rome in time, but devotion
to Saint Timothy has always been strong in
Rome, which seems to argue for his presence
at the martyrdom of his spiritual father.
Saint Timothy was of a tender and affectionate
disposition, and certainly found his role in the idolatrous city of Ephesus difficult to sustain. Saint Paul, when
he writes to Timothy, then a tested servant of God and a bishop
advancing in years, addresses him as he would his own child, and
seems most anxious about his forcefulness in his demanding role. His
disciple’s health was fragile, and Saint Paul counsels him to
“take a little wine for his digestion.” Saint Timothy is the “Angel
of the Church of Ephesus” of the Apocalypse, its
bishop whom Our Lord, too, exhorted to remember his original faith
and piety.
Not many years after the death of Saint Paul,
Timothy, who had surely profited from these counsels, won a martyr’s
crown at Ephesus, when on a feast day of the goddess Diana, whose
temple stood in that city, he entered into the ungovernable crowd to
calm it, exhorting these souls, deprived of the light of truth, to
renounce vain worship and embrace Christianity. Wild with idolatrous
passion, a pagan struck down the bishop of the Christians, thus
freeing him to join his beloved spiritual father in the realm of the
Blessed.
Reflection. All Christians can profit, like Saint Paul’s disciple,
from Our Lord’s admonition and the great Apostle’s letters. It is
remarkable what great stress
Saint Paul
lays on the avoidance of idle talk, and on application to holy
reading. These are his chief topics. He exhorts his son Timothy to
“avoid tattlers and busybodies; to give no heed to novelties; to
shun profane and vain chatter, but hold to sound teaching; to be an
example in words and conversation; to attend to reading, to
exhortation, and to doctrine.” Let us faithfully follow these
excellent counsels.
Sources: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints,
a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other
sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894);
The Holy Bible: Old and New Testaments.
St.
Timothy
Timothy
was Paul's dearest disciple, his most steadfast associate. He was
converted during the apostle's first missionary journey. When Paul
revisited Lystra, Timothy, though still very young (about twenty)
joined him as a co-worker and companion. Thereafter, there existed
between them a most intimate bond, as between father and son.
St. Paul
calls him his beloved child, devoted to him "like a son to his
father" (Phil. 2:22). Of a kindly disposition, unselfish, prudent,
zealous, he was a great consolation to Paul, particularly in the
sufferings of his later years. He also assisted the apostle in the
establishment of all the major Christian communities and was
entrusted with missions of highest importance. Timothy was with Paul
during his first Roman imprisonment. Paul made his self-sacrificing
companion bishop of Ephesus, but the finest monument left him by
his master are the two canonical Epistles bearing his name.
Memorial of Sts. Timothy and Titus,
bishops
Old Calendar: St. Polycarp, bishop and martyr
St. Timothy, born in Galatia in Asia Minor, was baptized and later
ordained to the priesthood by
St. Paul. The young Galatian became Paul's
missionary companion and his most beloved spiritual son.
St. Paul showed his trust in this disciple by
consecrating him bishop of the great city of Ephesus. St. Timothy was stoned to death
thirty years after St. Paul's
martyrdom for having denounced the worship of the goddess Diana. St.
Timothy's feast was celebrated on January 24 before the reform of
the Roman Calendar.
Timothy
The spiritual son of
St. Paul, St. Timothy was a mamzerim: his mother
was a Jew, and his father was a pagan. Born in Lystra, Timothy
converted to Christianity and joined Paul on his second missionary
journey. Timothy is said to have helped found the churches at
Corinth, Thessalonike, and
Philippi. Some scholars believe that he
co-wrote II Corinthians, I and II Thessalonians, Philippians,
Colossians, and Philemon, and since the XIX Century, some scholars
have considered the letters to Timothy pseudo-Pauline. Timothy was
with Paul at the time of his imprisonment in Caesaria and at the
time of his later imprisonment in Rome. Timothy was also
briefly jailed in Rome.
Paul sent or accompanied Timothy to Ephesus, where he, according to
legend and Eusebius, became the first bishop.
St. John of Damascus reports that Timothy was present at
the Dormition of the Theotokos. Timothy opposed the Katagogia,
orgiastic festivals in honor of Diana, and is said, for that reason,
to have been clubbed to death c. 97 near Nerva.
Constantine translated his relics in 356 to Constantinople
St Timothy
Memory celebrated 22 January
St
Timothy was born in Lystra in Lyconia of a pagan Greek father and a
Jewish mother named Eunice. His grandmother was a Christian and it
was perhaps through her influence and teaching that he came to
follow Christ. When the Apostle Paul visited Lystra, the young
Timothy was already a full member of the Christian Church and after
the two discussed the many difficulties Christianity was facing, the
younger man expressed a desire to serve as a missionary, despite its
hazards. It was after the departure of Barnabas and Mark that Paul
summoned Timothy to accompany him as a colleague in the cause of
Christ.
About a quarter of a century after Christ, Timothy and Paul
traveled to Europe, accompanied by Silas, in a missionary task of
staggering proportion. In most areas theirs was at best a thankless
job, but with the zeal born of a profound love of the Saviour, they
succeeded in securing a foothold in spiritually darkened corners.
They brought this about with administrative skill in the face of
odds which might have discouraged less hardy souls. In a fury of
religious oratory, they summoned thousands to the fold and
established Churches of God where for centuries people had
worshipped mere objects or beasts out of fear and superstition.
When St Paul was summoned to
Athens, he commissioned Timothy to carry the word of
Christ to Corinth,
Thessaloniki,
and Phillipi. To these areas Timothy displayed his talents to the
fullest in establishing a nucleus of
Christian
Churches which became the
cornerstone from which Christianity has grown to its present day
proportions. Timothy made his way to
Ephesus
were he was established as bishop of the city. A frenzied mob of
resentful pagans whom he denounced stoned him to death. St Timothy
died a martyr for Christ on January 22 AD 72.
To the man Timothy fell the solemn honor of being the recipient
of two letters from the great apostle
St Paul
entitled First Timothy and Second Timothy.
