Today, we celebrate the memory of St. Timothy and of St. Titus, bishops. Three Letters traditionally attributed to Paul are addressed to them (1Tim, 2Tim and Tit). Paul held Timothy in high esteem. Indeed, the Apostle entrusted Timothy with important missions and saw him almost as an alter ego, as is evident from his great praise of him in his Letter to the Philippians. When Paul was passing through Lystra at the beginning of his second missionary journey, he chose Timothy to be his companion because “he was well spoken of by the brethren at Lystra and Iconium” (Acts 16:2).

Then, as regards the figure of Titus, Paul took him with him to Jerusalem for the so-called Apostolic Council, where the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles that freed them from the constraints of Mosaic Law was solemnly accepted.

—If we consider together the two figures of Timothy and Titus, we are aware of certain very significant facts. The most important one is that in carrying out his missions, Paul availed himself of collaborators. Another observation concerns the readiness to take on various offices that also often consisted of representing Paul in far from easy circumstances.