TYCHICUS (Τυχικός « fortunate », Tychicus). - A Christian of proconsular Asia, probably from Ephesus, a faithful companion and collaborator of St. Paul.
He appears for the first time toward the end of the Apostle's third missionary journey (A.D. 58) together with six or seven others (Acts 20:4 ff.; here the Codex Claromontanus, the Sahidic Coptic version and a marginal gloss of the Harclean Syriac say he was from Ephesus), perhaps, like Trophimus, as a delegate of the Churches of Asia that were sending the offerings for the Christians to Jerusalem, as a guarantee (desired by Paul) that the offerings themselves were faithfully administered (2 Cor. 8:19 ff.). Around A.D. 62 he is again at the side of Paul, a prisoner in Rome, who calls him "beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord," sending him to Asia to carry the letter for the Colossians (v.) and the Ephesians (v.) along with other oral news concerning the Apostle, together with the "faithful and beloved brother" Onesimus (v.), the slave of Philemon ([v.] Col. 4:7 ff.; cf. Eph. 6:21 f.). Around A.D. 65 T. was again with Paul on a mission through Greece; here the Apostle arranges to meet Titus at Nicopolis in Epirus, expressing the intention of sending either Artemas or T. to Crete to replace him during his absence (Titus 3:12); it is likely that he sent Artemas there and that T. followed the Apostle to Rome, if from there in A.D. 66-67 St. Paul recommends to Timothy that he come together with Mark, telling him that he has already sent T. toward Ephesus (2 Tim. 4:12) to take his place temporarily.
Despite the meaning of the Greek name, T. must be distinguished from Fortunatus, the "firstfruits of Achaia" (1 Cor. 16:15, 17). The other events of his life are uncertain. Various traditions make him bishop of Colophon in Ionia, of Chalcedon in Bithynia, of Neapolis in Cyprus. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on April 29 and says he died at Paphos (Cyprus).
Bibliography2 works
Luigi Vagaggini