EUNICE. - Mother of Timothy, disciple of St. Paul. Luke (Acts 16:1) presents Timothy as the son of a "faithful Jewish woman," that is, converted to Christianity; her name is found 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 the formation of Timothy, who, instructed from childhood in the Holy Scriptures (II Tim. 3:15), attached himself to the Apostle at a very young age. E. was the wife of a pagan (Acts 16:1): for this reason Paul, out of regard 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. could, absolutely speaking, have been merely a proselyte of Judaism; but it is more probable that she was Jewish by birth, according to the full sense of the term Ἰουδαία, with which she is presented in Acts 16:1. Perhaps out of deference to her husband she had omitted the circumcision of her son. About the date of E.'s conversion to Christianity nothing precise is known. Noteworthy is the πρῶτον (πρόεδρον) of II Tim. 1:5, which probably refers to the priority of Lois's and E.'s adherence to the faith, in relation to the conversion of Timothy, which likewise occurred before Paul's second passage through Lystra. At that time, in fact, Timothy was already prominent and esteemed in the community (Acts 16:2).
Bibliography3 works
Teodorico da Castel San Pietro