TICHICO (Τυχικός “fortunate,” Tychicus). — A Christian of proconsular Asia, probably from Ephesus, and a faithful companion and collaborator of St. Paul.
He first appears toward the end of the Apostle’s third mission (A.D. 58), together with six or seven others (Act. 20, 4 ff.; here the Codex Claromontanus, the Sa‘idic Coptic version, and a marginal gloss in the Harclean Syriac call him an Ephesian), perhaps, like Trophimus, a delegate of the Churches of Asia that were sending offerings to Jerusalem for the Christians, as a guarantee (desired by Paul) that the offerings themselves would be administered faithfully (II Cor. 8, 19 ff.). Around 62 he was again at Paul’s side, a prisoner in Rome, who calls him “beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord,” sending him to Asia to deliver the letter to the Colossians (v.) and the Ephesians (v.), together with other oral information concerning the Apostle, accompanied by the “faithful and beloved brother” Onesimus (v.), the slave of Philemon ([v.] Col. 4, 7 ff.; cf. Eph. 6, 21 f.). Around 65 T. was once again with Paul on a mission through Greece; there the Apostle arranged with Titus to meet at Nicopolis in Epirus, expressing his intention of sending Artemas or T. to Crete to replace him during his absence (Tit. 3, 12); it is probable that he sent Artemas there and that T. followed the Apostle to Rome, if it was from there, in 66–67, that St. Paul recommended Timothy come together with Mark, telling him that he had already sent T. to Ephesus (II Tim. 4, 12) to take his place temporarily.
Despite the meaning of his Greek name, T. must be distinguished from Fortunatus, “the firstfruits of Achaia” (I Cor. 16, 15, 17). The later events of his life are uncertain. Various traditions make him bishop of Colophon in Ionia, of Chalcedon in Bithynia, or of Neapolis in Cyprus. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 29 April and says that he died at Paphos (Cyprus).