The son of a Jewish mother and a Greek Gentile father, Saint Timothy came from Lystra in present-day Turkey.  His mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, are known to have joined the Church, and Timothy himself is described as a student of Sacred Scripture from his youth.

After St. Paul's visit to Timothy's home region of Lycaonia, around the year 51, the young Timothy joined the apostle St. Paul and accompanied him in his travels.  After religious strife forced Paul to leave the city of Berea, Timothy remained to help the local church.  Paul later sent him to Thessalonica to help the Church during a period of persecution.

The two met up again in Corinth, and Timothy eventually journeyed to Macedonia on Paul's behalf.  Problems in the Corinthian Church brought Timothy back for a time, after which he joined Paul and accompanied the apostle in subsequent travels.

Like Paul, Timothy endured a period of imprisonment in the course of his missionary work.  His release is mentioned in the New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews.

Around the year 64, Timothy became the first bishop of the Church of Ephesus.  During that same year, he received the first of two surviving letters from St. Paul.  The second, written the next year, urges Timothy to visit St. Paul in Rome, where Paul was imprisoned before his martyrdom.

Ancient sources state that St. Timothy followed his mentor in dying as a martyr for the faith.  In the year 93, during his leadership of the Church in Ephesus, he took a stand against the worship of idols and was consequently killed by a mob. The pagan festival he was protesting was held January 22, and this date was preserved as St. Timothy's memorial in the Christian East.  The General Roman Calendar venerates Saint Timothy together with Saint Titus on their feast day of January 26, the day after the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul.