St. Timothy

St. Timothy was a native of Lystra in Asia Minor, the son of a Greek father and a devout Jewish mother, Eunice. St. Paul, meeting him on his second missionary journey, found a young man already well spoken of by the Christians of Lystra and Iconium, formed in the Scriptures from childhood by his mother and grandmother, Lois. Paul took him as a companion, and from that point Timothy's life is woven through the New Testament. He became Paul's most trusted co-worker — 'my true child in the faith,' as the apostle calls him. He shared Paul's journeys and imprisonments, is named as co-sender of six of Paul's letters, and was repeatedly entrusted with delicate missions to young churches, including Thessalonica, Corinth, and Philippi. Paul's affection is unmistakable: 'I have no one like him,' he wrote to the Philippians, 'who will be genuinely anxious for your welfare.' The two New Testament letters addressed to Timothy show him charged with the care of the church at Ephesus, ordering its worship, appointing its ministers, and guarding sound teaching. Early tradition, recorded by Eusebius, accordingly honors him as the first bishop of Ephesus. Timid in health and perhaps in temperament — Paul urges him not to let anyone despise his youth, and famously advises a little wine for his stomach's sake — he nonetheless persevered as a pastor for decades. According to later tradition, preserved in the fifth-century Acts of Timothy, he was beaten and stoned to death around the year 97 when he opposed a pagan festival in Ephesus; this account lies beyond the biblical record and rests on tradition. His relics were said to have been translated to Constantinople in 356. He shares a feast with his fellow bishop St. Titus on January 26, fittingly placed the day after the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, and he is invoked as a patron of those with stomach ailments.