Another Reader & Martyr

Once again, I share a Facebook posting by my friend, Anthony Mathison

An Eastern (Greek) & Western icon of Sts. Timothy & Maura. As I take a break from active discernment, I also return to my newly rediscovered role as an instituted Reader (both in my Roman parish & now with Melkite Greek Catholics), and, as I'm aiming for, a "Didascalus" after the example of my hero, godly Origen of Alexandria. In the process, I discovered these two saints & took them among my ministerial patrons. Their story is quite beautiful.

St. Timothy was a young son of a priest in the early Alexandrian Catholic Church in Egypt near the Thebaid. He was also an ordained Reader, which entailed far more than simply proclaiming the readings at services or Mass. He spent his evenings reading to the people of his village and preaching the Gospel. He also kept the Holy Scriptures & liturgical books safe in his home during the build-up to the horrible persecution of Emperor Diocletian (A.D. 303-313) with the aim of exterminating Christianity. In the year A.D. 286, St. Timothy married a pious 17-year-old woman named Maura. The two began a life of prayer and Christian ministry together.

Only 20 days into their marriage, St. Timothy was denounced as a Christian and keeper of their holy books. He was handed over to the Roman governor of the Thebaid, Arianos. Diocletian, following policy he would implement elsewhere, directly commanded that St. Timothy surrender the Scriptures and renounce His Faith. He vehemently refused, keeping the location of the Holy Books secret & professing that he was a Christian indeed. Gov. Arianos gestured to grisly objects laid out nearby: "You see, don't you, the instruments prepared for torture?" St. Timothy responded, unmoved: "Don't you see the angels of God, which are strengthening me?"

His passion began, and following the Diocletian persecution's tenor, was uncharacteristically brutal. Iron rods were heated to white hot temperature and shoved into his ears, but avoiding making him deaf. His eyelids were cut off, and he was then blinded. They then hung him upside down with a stone tied to his neck. Repeatedly commanded to hand over the Holy Books, he would not budge. Arianos was then told of St. Maura, his young wife. He mused that if the stubborn Reader would not comply for loyalty to his God, Christ, he might for his beloved wife. They brought her in immediately.

Gov. Arianos first spoke tenderly, appealing to her youth; her hopes and dreams. Maimed though he was, if he complied, St. Timothy would be released without further harm. She could live with him, even have a family. They might have even been rewarded for their loyalty to the Emperor woth riches and rank. Arianos told her to speak to her husband.

St. Maura was brought in to see St. Timothy. Accounts differ as to what was said between the married lovers, but while looking on the body of her agonized husband, she confessed herself a Christian openly to all. Arianos was furious. She soon also was tortured, in the hope of breaking St. Timothy: Her hair was pulled out, her fingers cut off. Arianos immersed her in a pot of boiling water, although to the astonishment of all, she was unharmed. While the governor was impressed by such a miracle momentarily, his rage was stirred again and he resumed his tortures. It is said to be such cruel torture that even the pagan crowd was scandalized. Arianos finished by ordering the young, maimed couple nailed to two crosses in mockery of Christ, facing each other. Perhaps, they might break in time, and reveal where the Holy Books were hidden. Diocletian intended to destroy Christianity once and for all, and burning copies of the Holy Bible was crucial to that cause.

Yet, for 10 days they hung there, slowly dying. The crowd watched them pray & sing hymns together, encouraging each other to suffer for Christ. When one became weak or doubtful, the other would be strong for them, reminding the beloved of what Christ suffered and the promise of eternal life. Finally, they died of exhaustion and asphyxiation. Their witness so inspired their torturer that he too became a Christian, and was later martyred himself. He is also venerated in the Eastern Church as St. Arianos of Alexandria.

The Holy Bible is indeed the King of Books. It is truly worth dying to preserve and pass on...and many have. As the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council put it in modern times, reiterating the most ancient doctrine for which both Sts. Timothy & Maura bore witness:

"Those Divinely revealed realities which are contained and presented in Sacred Scripture have been committed to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For Holy Mother Church, relying on the belief of the Apostles (Jn. 20:31; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pt. 1:19-20, 3:15-16), holds that the books of both the Old and New Testaments in their entirety, with all their parts, are sacred and canonical because written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their Author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.
[...]
Since, therefore, all that the inspired authors or hagiographers affirm must be held as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that, by means of the books of Scripture, the truth that God, for the sake of our salvation, wanted recorded in the form of the Sacred Writings is taught firmly, faithfully, and without error. [...] (2 Tim. 3:16-17)."

–Dei Verbum, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, §11 (A.D. 1965).