Titus (Τίτος), Saint

TITUS (Τίτος), Saint. - A pagan by origin and perhaps a native of Antioch, he was a companion and effective collaborator of St. Paul, especially in pacifying the Christian community of Corinth (around 57). Left temporarily in Crete by the Apostle to reorganize the Churches of the island, he was shortly afterward summoned by him to Nicopolis in Epirus with a brief letter (v. PASTORAL LETTERS; TIMOTHY) written perhaps from Macedonia in 66. During Paul's last imprisonment, T. went to Dalmatia (II Tim. 4:9); in the following years, according to unanimous tradition, he was bishop of Crete until his death, which occurred in advanced old age.

Since he is never mentioned in Acts (an omission difficult to explain), some identified him with other known figures (Timothy, Silas, Titius Justus), but without foundation. He appears for the first time with Paul and Barnabas on their way to Jerusalem for the Council of the Apostles (around 49-59): the presence of an exemplary Christian, converted from paganism (perhaps by Paul himself, who calls him "son": Tit. 1:4) and uncircumcised, was the living expression of the Gospel free from the Law (Gal. 2:1, 3). He was again with Paul at Ephesus (54-58), together with Timothy and others, though it seems with greater independence from the Apostle. After the failure of Timothy and of Paul himself at Corinth (v. CORINTH, vol. IV, col. 253 ff.), he agreed to go there himself, perhaps with the intermediate letter "of many tears," succeeding in restoring order in that Church (II Cor. 7:6, 13; 12:17 ff.). He returned again to Corinth to complete the collection and perhaps as the bearer of II Cor. In character he was different from Timothy: perhaps older than he, certainly stronger in the face of difficulties. He was probably still with St. Paul on the journey from Rome to the East after the latter's release; at this time he was charged with reorganizing the Christian communities of Crete, founded perhaps by those Cretans converted thirty years earlier (Act. 2:11). Then he followed or rejoined the Apostle, a prisoner in Rome in 66, from where he set out, certainly for reasons of apostolate, for Dalmatia, but it seems to Paul's displeasure, as he was left almost alone (II Tim. 4:9 ff.).

T. died without leaving any writings; an alleged letter of his against the custom of the "virgines subintroductae" (D. De Bruyne, Epistula Titi, discipuli Pauli, in Revue bénédictine, 37 [1925], pp. 47-72) is of Priscillianist origin. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on Jan. 4 and Feb. 6, the day on which he is venerated in the Latin Church, after

Pius IX introduced his feast with a decree of May 18, 1854. His body, which had remained for a long time at Gortyna, the capital of Crete, was transferred to Venice, to the basilica of St. Mark. Andrew, bishop of Crete (d. 740), wrote an enthusiastic eulogy of him (PG 97, 1141-69).

LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO TITUS

Written by St. Paul at approximately the same time and for the same needs as the 1st to Timothy (v.), compared with this one it presents a case analogous to that of Col. compared with Eph., and is generally held to be slightly later than I Tim., although the ecclesiastical hierarchy appears in it as less evolved. According to the final annotation of some codices, it would have been written from Nicopolis, but this is perhaps a conjecture occasioned by Tit. 3, 12; it is more likely that Paul wrote it from some locality in Macedonia, before arriving in Epirus.

The literary authenticity, admitted in ancient times even by Tatian, presents fewer difficulties than I Tim. and was called into question only because of its affinities with the latter; even the followers of the "fragmentary theory" recognize in Tit. numerous phrases or "notes" that are certainly authentic. In the Pastorals St. Paul displays a literary culture more [developed] than in the other epistles, and in this one too the citation of various sources is noticeable. Tit. 1, 12 ff. cites, with approval, a verse of the Cretan poet Epimenides (6th century B.C.), whom it calls a "prophet" perhaps because his countrymen regarded him as such (Cicero, Divin., I, 18); despite the approval of the hagiographer, a wide margin remains for poetic hyperbole and for exceptions. Tit. 3, 5-8 perhaps cites a baptismal liturgical hymn (analogous to that of I Tim. 3, 16; cf. I Cor. 14, 26; Eph. 5, 14, 19). Some similarity has also been noted with I Pt., written around the time when Paul was in Rome for the first time.

The content is analogous to that of I Tim., of which Tit. seems to be a summary.

In solemn form the prologue recalls the design of God, who willed to make use of Paul for the spread of the Gosgel (1:1-4). Then the Apostle reminds T. that he left him in Crete to set those communities in order, especially by appointing bishops suited to their delicate task (1:5-9). The Christians of Crete, both because of their natural inclinations and because of the tendencies stirred up by false teachers, must be treated with firmness (1:10-16). Therefore let him never tire of reminding them, with all the authority of his office and by his personal example, of the duties of the various categories of persons, in conformity with the Christian ideal, which is a holy life in expectation of the "glory of the great God": it is precisely for this that Jesus became incarnate and sacrificed himself, thus giving us the possibility of being born to a new life through Baptism, the "laver of regeneration and renewal" (2:1-3:11). Paul ends by arranging to meet T. at Nicopolis and urging him to provide for the journey of a certain Zenas, a jurist, and of the celebrated evangelist Apollos. The greetings and the blessing follow (3:12-15).

Luigi Vagaggini