Feast Day: January 26
St. Timothy and St.Titus were two of St. Paul’s closest assistants who helped him in building communities in the early Church. St. Titus is revered as the first bishop of Crete and Saint Timothy as the first bishop of Ephesus.
St. Timothy:
Timothy was born in Lystra to a Jewish mother and a pagan father. When St. Paul visited Lystra, Timothy, 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). Timothy accompanied St. Paul in his travels to Asia Minor, Macedonia, Athens, Thessalonica and to Corinth to offer support to communities that St. Paul had been in touch with. He became St. Paul’s closest friend and most faithful follower and was even imprisoned with St.Paul for two years.
St. Paul entrusted the Christian community in Ephesus to Timothy, naming him their first bishop. The Church has preserved two of the letters that St. Paul wrote to Timothy as part of the New Testament. Timothy was martyred around the year AD 97 for opposing a ritual ceremony in honor of a pagan god. The townspeople paraded around with clubs during the rite, and when Timothy confronted them, they killed him.
St. Titus:
St. Titus, a pagan by birth, was converted by St. Paul, and went on to serve as one of his closest associate. Like Timothy, St. Paul sent Titus out to various Christian communities to encourage and support them. Paul eventually established Titus as bishop of Crete, which was a notoriously difficult community, and one of his letters to Titus is preserved in the New Testament. Titus spent most of his life in Crete and died a natural death at the age of 94.