St. Timothy, Bishop/Martyr

Saint Timothy, Bishop and Martyr from the Liturgical Year, 1904

Before giving thanks to God for the miraculous Conversion of the Apostle of the Gentiles, the Church assembles us together for the Feast of his favourite Disciple. Timothy--the indefatigable companion of St. Paul--the friend to whom the great Apostle, a few days before shedding his blood for Christ, wrote his last Epistle--comes now to await his master's arrival at the Crib of the Emmanuel. He there meets John the Beloved Disciple, together with whom he bore the anxieties attendant on the government of the Church of Ephesus; Stephen, too, and the other Martyrs, welcome him, for he, also, bears a Martyr's palm in his hand. He presents to the august Mother of the Divine Babe the respectful homage of the Church of Ephesus, which Mary had sanctified by her presence, and which shares with the Church of Jerusalem the honour of having had Her as one of its number, who was not only, like the Apostles, the witness, but moreover, in her quality of Mother of God, the ineffable instrument of the salvation of mankind.

 

Let us now read, in the Office of the Church, the abridged account of the actions
of this zealous disciple of the Apostles.

Timothy was born at Lystra in Lycaonia. His father was a Gentile, and his mother a Jewess. When the Apostle Paul came into those parts, Timothy was a follower of the christian religion. The Apostle had heard much of his holy life, and was thereby induced to take him as the companion of his travels: but, on account of the Jews, who had become converts to the faith of Christ, and were aware that the father of Timothy was a Gentile, he administered to him the rite of circumcision. As soon as they arrived at Ephesus, the Apostle ordained him Bishop of that Church.

The Apostle addressed two of his Epistles to him--one from Laodicea, the other from Rome--to instruct him how to discharge his pastoral office, he could not endure to see sacrifice, which is due to God alone, offered to the idols of devils; and finding that the people of Ephesus were offering victims to Diana, on her festival, he strove to make them desist from their impious rites. But they, turning upon him, stoned him. The Christians could not deliver him from their hands, till he was more dead than alive. They carried him to a mountain not far from the town, and there, on the ninth of the Calends of February (January 24) in the year 97 A.D., he slept in the Lord.
 

St. Timothy was of a tender and affectionate disposition, and certainly found his role in the idolatrous city of Ephesus difficult to sustain. St. 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." St. 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 St. 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.

 

  

                   Prayer

In thee, O holy Pontiff! we honour one of the disciples of the Apostles--one of the links which connect us immediately with Christ. Thou appearest to us all illumined by thy communion with Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles. Another of his disciples, Dionysius the Areopagite, made thee the confidant of his sublime contemplations on the Divine Names; but now, bathed in light eternal, thou thyself art contemplating the Sun of Justice, in the face-to-face vision. Intercede for us, who enjoy but a glimpse of his beauty through the veil of his humiliations, that we may so love him, as to merit to see him, one day, in his glory. In order to lessen the pressure of the corruptible body, which weigheth down the soul (Wisd. ix. 15), thou didst subject thy outward man to so rigorous a penance, that St. Paul exhorted thee to moderate it: do thou assist us in our endeavours to reduce our flesh to obedience to the spirit. The Church reads without ceasing the counsels, which the Apostle gave to thee, and to all Pastors through thee, for the election and the conduct of the clergy: pray that the Church may be blessed with Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, endowed with all those qualifications, which he requires from the dispensers of the mysteries of God. Lastly, we beseech thee, who didst ascend to heaven decked with the aureola of martyrdom, encourage us who are also soldiers of Christ, that we may throw aside our cowardice, and win that kingdom, where our Emmanuel welcomes and crowns His elect for all eternity.

Sermon of St. Augustine on the Feast of St. Timothy:

Today we keep our annual celebration of the triumph of the blessed Martyr Timothy, and the Church, while rejoicing in his glory places him before us, that we may follow in his footsteps. If we suffer with him, we shall be glorified with him. There are two things to be considered in this glorious combat; namely, the hard-hearted cruelty of the torturer, that we may detest it; the patience of the Martyr, that we may imitate it. Hear what the Psalmist says in reproof of wickedness:  "Be not emulous of evildoers, for they shall shortly wither away as grass. But the Apostle teaches patience with the wicked in the words: Patience is necessary for you, that you may receive the promise."
(Roman Breviary)



All Christians can profit, like St. 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. (Maybe we can be better examples to our separated brethren, as well as those 'separated brethren' still within the walls)