St Timothy the Apostle

A native of Lystra in Asia Minor, son of a Greek father and the Jewish believer Eunice, Timothy was formed in the Scriptures from childhood by his mother and grandmother Lois. Paul took him as a companion on his second missionary journey, and he became the apostle's most trusted fellow worker — 'my true child in the faith,' sent as Paul's emissary to Thessalonica, Corinth, and Philippi. Two letters of the New Testament are addressed to him, full of affectionate counsel to a young leader of fragile health and genuine faith: 'Let no one despise your youth.' Tradition holds that he served as first bishop of Ephesus, where, according to accounts from later centuries, he was beaten to death around 97 after confronting a riotous pagan festival. His relics were later translated to Constantinople. In Timothy the Church honours the second generation — those who guarded the deposit they received.