St. Timothy was born in Asia Minor. His father was a pagan and his mother a Hebrew. When St. Paul went to preach in his city, the lad Timothy, his mother and his grandmother all became Christians. Several years later, St. Paul came back and found Timothy now a young man, whom people said would do great things. St. Paul saw that he would make a good missionary and the young man was eager to go with him. So it was Timothy left his home and his parents to follow St. Paul, to share in his sufferings and to bring the word of God to many people. St. Timothy was the great Apostle’s beloved disciple. He was his dear son in Christ, faithful always. St. Paul once said that he had no one else like him. He went everywhere with St. Paul, until the Apostle made him Bishop of the great city of Ephesus. It was very hard for Timothy to be far away from Paul, but he made the sacrifice for the love of God. Before he was martyred, St. Paul wrote Timothy a beautiful letter from his prison cell in Rome. He encouraged him to become a saint, to read the Bible and to try to please God. He wanted him to pay no attention to busybodies, and to give good example to everyone.
As St. Paul, Timothy, too, died a martyr. He was beaten and stoned to death because he opposed the worship of false gods.
Let us not be busybodies or “chatterboxes”. Like St. Timothy, let us read holy books in order to be able to know and love God more.
