Sts. Timothy and Titus

January 26 is the joint feast of Sts. Timothy and Titus, the two disciples of St. Paul to whom the three "pastoral epistles" of the New Testament are addressed. Timothy, the son of a Jewish mother and a Greek father, was circumcised by Paul at Lystra and became the apostle's most constant companion (Acts 16:1-3). Paul sent him to the churches of Thessalonica, Corinth, and Philippi, and finally consecrated him bishop of Ephesus, where tradition says he was martyred by a mob in 97 AD.

Titus, a Greek convert, was Paul's envoy to the troublesome church of Corinth and the foundational bishop of Crete. The epistle to Titus, the last of the pastoral letters, gives him instruction for the churches of the island. The apocryphal acts say he died at Gortyn in Crete at the age of 94, and his relics were venerated in the Church of St. Titus at Gortyn until the 9th century, when they were translated to Venice for safety from the Saracen raids.

The relics of Titus were returned to Crete in 1966 by Pope Paul VI, after seven centuries in Venice, and are now venerated in the new Church of St. Titus at Heraklion. The feast of Timothy and Titus was restored to the Roman calendar in 1969, after centuries of being kept only in the religious orders; it is kept on January 26, the day after the Conversion of St. Paul, the master who sent them both. From Ephesus, where Timothy led the church, to Venice, where Titus long rested, the feast binds the Pauline mission to its two bishops.