Life
The Holy Apostle Timothy was born around the year 17 after Christ in Lystra, a city in the region of Lycaonia in Asia Minor. His father was a Greek pagan, while his mother was a Jewess named Eunice, a devout Christian from the earliest days of the Apostle Paul’s preaching. His grandmother Lois was one of the first Christians in Lystra, a woman of deep faith who raised Eunice, and Eunice raised Timothy in that same faith — of which the Apostle Paul writes with evident emotion in the Second Epistle to Timothy: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (2 Tim 1:5).
The Apostle Paul met Timothy during the first missionary journey, when he visited Lystra and the surrounding cities. Seeing the young man warmly commended by the brethren there, Paul took him as his companion and ordained him by the laying on of hands. From then on Timothy was Paul’s closest and most faithful companion in apostolic labors — he traveled with him through Macedonia, Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus, was sent as a representative in the most sensitive church situations. Paul calls him “my beloved and faithful child in the Lord” (1 Cor 4:17), “my fellow worker” (Rom 16:21), and “our brother” (2 Cor 1:1). Rarely in the history of the Church has such personal attachment between apostle and disciple been recorded.
Timothy was present at the arrest of the Apostle Paul and shared with him the anxieties over the young church communities scattered throughout Asia Minor and Greece. When Paul was imprisoned in Rome, Timothy was his right hand. From that Roman prison Paul sent the Second Epistle to Timothy — his spiritual testament, written just before his death, pervaded by a moving appeal: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim 4:2). At the end of the epistle Paul begs Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, for he was left alone — and this appeal is one of the saddest and most human passages in the entire New Testament.
The Apostle Timothy was appointed the first Bishop of Ephesus — the great city on the western coast of Asia Minor, the center of the local church, where the Apostle John the Theologian lived and wrote the Gospel. Timothy governed the Ephesian church with wisdom and meekness, preserving the true faith, combating heresies, and caring for the poor. Around 97, during the reign of Emperor Nerva (by another tradition, Domitian), the pagan inhabitants of Ephesus organized a procession in honor of idols. Timothy went before the crowd and boldly called the people to abandon idolatrous vanity. The enraged crowd threw itself upon him, beating him with stones and clubs, and left him to die. Saint Timothy yielded his soul to God on January 22. His holy relics were translated to Constantinople in 356 and placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles, alongside the relics of the Apostle Andrew and the Evangelist Luke.
The Church venerates Saint Timothy as an apostle, but also as one of the first bishops in Christian history — a model of a shepherd who with love guards the flock, faithfully transmits the tradition, and was not afraid of a martyr’s death.
Tropar (Tone 3)
O holy Apostle Timothy, worthy disciple and companion of the faithful Paul, who didst illumine Ephesus with the light of the Gospel and didst shed blood for Christ — pray to the God of mercy to grant us the light of His truth and the salvation of our souls.
Kontakion (Tone 1)
O disciple and heir of Paul, blessed Timothy, who didst wisely shepherd Ephesus as a pastor and didst receive the martyr’s crown — intercede before the Lord for those who with love honor thy holy memory.