EUNICE. - Mother of Timothy, disciple of St. Paul. Luke (Act. 16, 1) presents Timothy as the son of a “believing Jewess,” that is, one converted to Christianity; her name occurs in II Tim. 1, 5, where Paul recalls, as an illustrious example, the faith of Timothy’s grandmother (Lois) and of his mother E.
Both these women must have contributed to Timothy’s formation; instructed from childhood in the Holy Scriptures (II Tim. 3, 15), he became a follower of the Apostle while still very young. E. was the wife of a pagan (Act. 16, 1): for this reason Paul, out of consideration for the Jews of the region, circumcised Timothy. Mixed marriages were frequent, especially among the Jews of the diaspora, all the more so when the man was a pagan. E. may, strictly speaking, have been only a proselyte to Judaism; but it is more probable that she was Jewish by birth, according to the full sense of the term Ἰουδαία, by which she is presented in Act. 16, 1. Perhaps out of deference to her husband she had omitted the circumcision of her son. Nothing precise is known concerning the date of E.’s conversion to Christianity. Worth noting is the πρῶτον (πρόεδρον) of II Tim. 1, 5, which probably refers to the priority of the adherence to the faith of Lois and E., in relation to Timothy’s conversion, which likewise took place before Paul’s second visit to Lystra. At that time, indeed, Timothy was already known and esteemed in the community (Act. 16, 2).
BIBLI: F. Vigouroux, s. V. in DB, II, col. 2043 sg.; W. Lock, s. V. in Dict. of the Bible, I, p. 793; C. Spicq, Les épîtres pastorales, Parigi 1947, p. 309. Teodorico da Castel San Pietro