Apostle Timothy

Apostle Timothy of the Seventy was born in the city of Lystra to a devout Jewish mother, Eunice, and a Greek pagan father; from childhood he was instructed in Holy Scripture by his grandmother Lois and his mother (2 Tim. 1:5; 3:15). He came to believe in Christ during Apostle Paul's first preaching in Lystra and became his closest disciple and companion, accompanying him on many missionary journeys (Acts 16:1-3 onward). Apostle Paul calls him his "true son in the faith" (1 Tim. 1:2) and addresses two personal Pastoral Epistles to him — 1 and 2 Timothy — instructing him in the ordering of church life. He was made the first Bishop of Ephesus by Apostle Paul. He was martyred: during a pagan festival in honor of the goddess Artemis (Diana), he denounced the participants of a procession with idols, for which he was stoned to death by the enraged crowd. His relics were later translated to Constantinople. His memory is kept on January 22/February 4, as well as January 4/17 in the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles.