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Martyrdom of Saint Timothy. Pictorial Lives of the Saints: With Reflections for Every Day of the Year edited by John Dawson Gilmary Shea

"He was the beloved disciple and companion of St. Paul. His father was a Gentile, but his mother a Jewess. St. Augustine extols his zeal and disinterestedness in immediately forsaking his country, his house, and parents, to follow this apostle, and share in his poverty and sufferings. St. Paul regarded him not only as his disciple and most dear son, but as his brother and the companion of his labours. He calls him a man of God; and tells the Philippians that he found no one so truly united to him in heart and sentiments.

St. Timothy was ordained bishop by a prophecy, and a particular order of the Holy Ghost; and is always named the first bishop of Ephesus. Pray for all the bishops of Christ's Church; that as they receive their charge by succession from the apostles, they may faithfully acquit themselves in every part with the spirit of the apostles.

St. Timothy endeavoured with great zeal to withdraw the people from their abominable idolatry in offering sacrifices to Diana. But their obstinate blindness rendered his endeavours fruitless; and they rewarded his charity by stoning him to death. Pray to be delivered from all obstinacy and blindness: for these make the grossest errors appear as reasonable as truth; and nothing but the light of heaven, joined with an humble spirit, can prevent or remedy this evil. Pray therefore for both; that you may never unhappily mistake the charity of those who would be your best friends. If you cannot bear those who put you in mind of your faults, remember that these evils are at the root. It is something of the spirit of the Ephesians, and not a Christian spirit. Pray for a better. And if you feel resentment at such charity, consider it well, and you will see it to be akin to those stones which were thrown at St. Timothy. It is for fear of these that few have courage enough to run the hazard of them." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother

     "REFLECTION.-St. Paul, in writing to Timothy, a faithful and well-tried servant of God, and a bishop now getting on in years, addresses him as a child, and seems most anxious about his perseverance in faith and piety. The letters abound in minute personal instructions for this end. It is therefore remarkable what great stress the apostle lays on the avoiding of idle talk, and on the application to holy reading. These are his chief topics. Over and over again he exhorts his son Timothy to "avoid tattlers and busy bodies; to give no heed to novelties; to shun profane and vain babblings; but to hold the form of sound words; to be an example in word and conversation; to attend to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine." Pictorial Lives of the Saints: With Reflections for Every Day of the Year edited by John Dawson Gilmary Shea

"The Church reads without ceasing the counsels which the Apostle gave to you and to all pastors through you 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 you, who ascended 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." Dom Gueranger, The liturgical Year