Feast Day ~ January 4
In the early days of the Church, as the good news of the Gospel was being spread around the world, many different talents, abilities, and skills were needed. In order for the Church to survive and thrive, leaders were needed to accurately pass on the teachings of our Lord and to organize the new Christian communities.
Jesus Himself, as reported in Luke’s Gospel (chapter 10), appointed seventy followers, in addition to the twelve Apostles, to precede Him to various towns and cities preparing the way for His message. To this number, others were added in time and St. Titus was among them.
Born into a ruling pagan family on the island of Crete, Titus was given a thorough education in Greek philosophy, poetry and science, but paying attention to his dreams altered the course of his life forever. In the first dream, Titus was informed that his education was of no effect because it did not address the salvation of his soul. This caused him to reconsider all the philosophies that he had read and the pagan religion of the Cretan people. A year later, another dream directed him to study the words of the prophets, which Titus correctly understood to mean the Hebrew prophets. He read the book of Isaiah (chapter 41:9, 10) and felt that it was directed toward him.
Soon after this, the people of Crete heard reports of a new prophet in Palestine who could work great miracles, and Titus asked for permission to go there to see and hear for himself. He arrived in Jerusalem in time to hear the words of the Savior, to witness His Crucifixion, to be told of His Resurrection and to hear the Apostles speaking his own Cretan language on the day of Pentecost. Titus was thoroughly convinced of the truth of this new faith.
After St. Paul’s miraculous conversion, he chose the very capable and committed Titus (whom he had baptized) as one of his companions for his missionary travels and as one he could trust to carry on mission work alone. Titus therefore helped to smooth over some difficulties in the Corinthian church and he organized the collection of alms for the struggling Jerusalem church. When St. Paul visited Crete to preach to the pagans there, he decided to ordain Titus to be the bishop of that island, his native land.
Converting the people of Crete was not an easy task. Bishop Titus preached fervently, but many of the pagans were not open to the Christian message. St. Titus prayed for God to assist him in convincing the people, and God chose several dramatic ways in which to jolt the people out of their old way of thinking. As the people flocked to worship a statue of the goddess, Diana, the bishop prayed for a sign and the statue crumbled and fell at the feet of the worshipers. The people were further stunned when a new temple to the god, Zeus, still under construction, collapsed and the work was suspended. After these dramatic events, the bishop had much more success in his mission work on Crete.
St. Paul wrote an epistle to Titus with advice and encouragement, and when St. Paul was taken to Rome for his trial and execution, Bishop Titus went to Rome to provide comfort to his spiritual father. He was able to help arrange for a proper burial of the saint’s body.
St. Titus spent the remainder of his long life faithfully serving God and the Church among the people of Crete. At the age of 97 (around the year 107), he passed quietly from this life to the next and it was reported that at the time of his death, his face shone like the sun. His relics, which were taken from Crete to Venice during the Turkish occupation, were returned in 1966 and are kept in the Church of St. Titus in Heraklion.
The ministry of St. Titus is even recognized by the United States Army Chaplain Corps in the form of the Order of Titus Award, presented to chaplains and chaplain assistants for outstanding work in “ensuring the delivery of prevailing religious support to the American soldier.”
May St. Titus intercede for all who serve as missionaries and for all of us as we strive to show forth the love of Christ to others in our daily lives. Holy Titus, pray for us.
Resources: A Cloud of Witnesses: Saints and Martyrs from the Holy Land by Bishop Demetri; Orthodox Saints, Vol. III by George Poulous; the website of the Orthodox Church in America and Wikipedia; the article on The Seventy in the Orthodox Study Bible.