I just happened to look up saints Timothy and Stephen (my middle name) in order to find out when their feast days are. Timothy’s is January 26th, and Stephen’s is December 26th. Interesting that they are a month apart, to the day. I love reading into things like that. And of course, my birthday falls between the two, on the 5th of January, which itself is the Twelfth Night of Christmas. Which in turn is the eve of the Epiphany.

It commemorates three events—the baptism of Jesus (Mark 1), the visit of the Wise Men to Bethlehem (Mat. 2), and the miracle at Cana (John 2). In his baptism Jesus’ sonship to God was manifested to the world; in the visit of the Wise Men he was manifested as king to the Gentiles; and at the marriage feast at Cana his power to perform miracles (a divine prerogative) was shown. In popular celebration the feast is far more ancient than Christmas. Technically it is more important than Christmas, ranking after Easter and Pentecost. It is a day of gifts in many countries. In the Eastern Church the waters are blessed on this day. The word epiphany means a manifestation, usually of divine power. Thus the actual appearance of God (as in the burning bush) or a moment of divine revelation may be called an epiphany.

Another correlation between saints Timothy and Stephen is that both of them were martyred by being killed by a mob. In Stephen’s case, it was stoning, whereas in Timothy’s it was just a general beating. Also, St. Timothy was a bishop, as was the Timothy that I understand that I am named after, Bishop Timothy Harrington.

One more weird correlation is that supposedly Stephen’s devotion to God during his stoning was part of what moved Saul to convert to Christianity, and become Paul, one of the main early church fathers. Paul in turn is said to have converted Timothy to Christianity.