TICHON (Tuyukó “fortunate,” Tychicus). A Christian of Asia Proconsularis, probably from Ephesus, a faithful companion and collaborator of St. Paul.
He first appears toward the end of the Apostle’s third missionary journey (c. 58) together with six others (Acts 20:4ff.; here the Codex Claromontanus, the Coptic-Sahidic version, and a marginal gloss of the Harklean Syriac call him from Ephesus), perhaps, like Trophimus, a delegate of the Churches of Asia who were sending offerings to Jerusalem for the Christians, as a guarantee (sought by Paul) that the offerings themselves were administered faithfully (2 Cor 8:19ff.). Around 62 he is again at Paul’s side, a prisoner in Rome, who calls him “a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord,” sending him to Asia to carry the letter to the Colossians (q.v.) and the Ephesians (q.v.) along with other oral news about the Apostle, together with the “faithful and beloved brother” Onesimus (q.v.), a slave of Philemon ([q.v.] Col 4:7ff.; cf. Eph 6:21ff.). About 65 T. was again with Paul on a mission through Greece; there the Apostle arranges to meet Titus at Nicopolis in Epirus, expressing his intention to send Artemas or T. to Crete to take his place during his absence (Tit 3:12); it is likely that he sent Artemas and that T. followed the Apostle to Rome, since from there in 66–67 St. Paul recommends to Timothy to come with Mark, telling him that he had already sent T. on his way to Ephesus (2 Tim 4:12) to take his place temporarily.
Despite the meaning of the Greek name, T. is to be distinguished from Fortunatus, “the firstfruits of Achaia” (1 Cor 16:15, 17). The rest of his life is 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 April 29 and says he died at Paphos (Cyprus).