See St. Paul, ep. ad Tit. and 1 and 2 ad Cor.; also, Tillemont T. 2,
Calmet, T. 8, Le Quien Oriens Christianus, T. 2, p. 256. F. Farlat
Illyrici sacri. T. 1, p. 354 ad 392.
ST. TITUS was born a Gentile, and seems to have been converted by St.
Paul, who calls him his son in Christ. His extraordinary virtue and
merit gained him the particular esteem and affection of this apostle;
for we find him employed as his secretary and interpreter; and he styles
him his brother, and copartner in his labors; commends exceedingly his
solicitude and zeal for the salvation of his brethren,[1] and in the
tenderest manner expresses the comfort and support he found in him,[2]
insomuch, that, on a certain occasion, he declared that he found no rest
in his spirit, because at Troas he had not met Titus.[3] In the year 51,
he accompanied him to the council that was held at Jerusalem, on the
subject of the Mosaic rites. Though the apostle had consented to the
circumcision of Timothy, in order to render his ministry acceptable
among the Jews, he would not allow the same in Titus, apprehensive of
giving thereby a sanction to the error of certain false brethren, who
contended that the ceremonial institutes of the Mosaic law were not
abolished by the law of grace. Towards the close of the year 56, St.
Paul sent Titus from Ephesus to Corinth, with full commission to remedy
the several subjects of scandal, as also to allay the dissensions in
that church. He was there received with great testimonies of respect,
and was perfectly satisfied with regard to the penance and submission of
the offenders; but could not be prevailed upon to accept from them any
present, not even so much as his own maintenance. His love for that
church was very considerable, and at their request he interceded with
St. Paul for the pardon of the incestuous man. He was sent the same year
by the apostle a second time to Corinth, to prepare the alms that church
designed for the poor Christians at Jerusalem. All these particulars we
learn from St. Paul's two epistles to the Corinthians.
St. Paul, after his first imprisonment, returning from Rome into the
east, made some stay in the island of Crete, to preach there the faith
of Jesus Christ: but the necessities of other churches requiring his
presence elsewhere, he ordained his beloved disciple Titus bishop of
that island, and left him to finish the work he had successfully begun.
"We may form a judgment," says St. Chrysostom,[4] "from the importance
of the charge, how great the esteem of St. Paul was for his disciple."
But finding the loss of such a companion too material, at his return
into Europe the year after, the apostle ordered him to meet him at
Nicopolis in Epirus, where he intended to pass the winter, and to set
out for that place as soon as either Tychichus, or Arthemas, whom he had
sent to supply his place during his absence, should arrive in Crete. St.
Paul sent these instructions to Titus, in the canonical epistle
addressed to him, when on his Journey to Nicopolis, in autumn, in the
year 64. He ordered him to establish Priests,[5] that is, {087} bishops,
as St. Jerom, St. Chrysostom, and Theodoret expound it, in all the
cities of the island. He sums up the principal qualities necessary for a
bishop, and gives him particular advice touching his own conduct to his
flock, exhorting him to hold to strictness of discipline, but seasoned
with lenity. This epistle contains the rule of episcopal life, and as
such, we may regard it as faithfully copied in the life of this
disciple. In the year 65, we find him sent by St. Paul to preach in
Dalmatia.[6] He again returned to Crete, and settled the faith in that
and the adjacent little island. All that can be affirmed further of him
is, that he finished a laborious and holy life by a happy death in
Crete, in a very advanced old age, some affirm in the ninety-fourth year
of his age. The body of St. Titus was kept with great veneration in the
cathedral of Gortyna, the ruins of which city, the ancient metropolis of
the island, situated six miles from mount Ida, are still very
remarkable. This city being destroyed by the Saracens in 823, these
relics could never since be discovered: only the head of our saint was
conveyed safe to Venice, and is venerated in the Ducal basilica of St.
Mark (See Creta Sacra, Auctore Flaminio Cornelio, Senatore Veneto.
Venetiis, anno 1755, de S. Tito, T. 1, p. 189, 195.) St. Titus has been
looked upon in Crete as the first archbishop of Gortyna, which
metropolitical see is fixed at Candia, since this new metropolis was
built by the Saracens. The cathedral of the city of Candia, which now
gives its name to the whole island, bears his name. The Turks leave this
church in the hands of the Christians. The city of Candia was built in
the ninth century, seventeen miles from the ancient Gortyn or Gortyna.
Under the metropolitan of Candia, there are at present in this island
eleven suffragan bishops of the Greek communion.
When St. Paul assumed Titus to the ministry, this disciple was already a
saint, and the apostle found in him all the conditions which he charged
him so severely to require in those whom he should honor with the
pastoral charge. It is an illusion of false zeal, and a temptation of
the enemy, for young novices to begin to teach before they have learned
themselves how to practise. Young birds, which leave their nests before
they are able to fly, are sure to perish. Trees which push forth their
buds before the season, yield no fruit, the flowers being either nipped
by the frost, or destroyed by the sun. So those who give themselves up
to the exterior employments of the ministry, before they are thoroughly
grounded in the spirit of the gospel, strain their tender interior
virtue, and produce only unclean or tainted fruit. All who undertake the
pastoral charge, besides a thorough acquaintance with the divine law,
and the maxims and spirit of the gospel, and experience, discretion, and
a knowledge of the heart of man, or his passions, must have seriously
endeavored to die to themselves by the habitual practice of self-denial,
and a rooted humility; and must have been so well exercised in holy
contemplation, as to retain that habitual disposition of soul amidst
exterior employments, and in them to be able still to say, _I sleep, and
my heart watches_;[7] that is, I sleep to all earthly things, and am
awake only to my heavenly friend and spouse, being absorbed in the
thoughts and desires of the most ardent love.
Footnotes:
1. 2 Cor. viii. 16, xii. 18.
2. 2 Cor. vii. 6, 7.
3. 2 Cor. xi. 13.
4. Hom. i. in Tit.
5. [Greek: Presbuterous], Tit. i. 5. See the learned Dr. Hammond's
dissertation on this subject. From the words of St. Paul, Tit. i. De
Marca de Concord. l. 1, c. 3, n. 2. and Schelstrate, T. 2, Ant.
Eccl. Diss. 4, c. 2 prove archbishops to be of apostolic
institution.
6. St. Titus certainly preached in Dalmatia, 2 Tim. iv. 10, &c. He is
honored in that country as its principal apostle, on which see the
learned Jesuit F. Fariat, Illyrici Sacr. T. i. p. 355. Saint
Domnius, who is honored among the saints on the 7th of May, is said
to have been ordained by him first bishop of Salona, then the
metropolis, which see was afterwards translated to Spalatro.
7. Cant. v.
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