St. Eunice

Eunice was the mother of St. Timothy, who was an associate of St. Paul and later the Bishop of the first century Christian church at Ephesus on the western coast of Asia Minor. Very little is known about Eunice, only what is found in the New Testament in Acts 16:1, 2 Timothy 1:5, 3:14-15, and 4:5. In these accounts, we know that Eunice was a Jewess who had married a Greek and lived in the town of Lystra, not far from Paul's native city of Tarsus. She was responsible for seeing that Timothy was very well educated, especially in scripture. She and her mother Lois probably converted to Christianity when Paul first came to Lystra in A.D. 46 and converted Timothy, although this visit was not recorded in the book of Acts.

Nothing has been found on where Eunice's veneration originated or anything about her cult and worship. She was recognized as a saint early in the church's history, before the practice of formal canonization in the late middle ages. Her feast day is March 11.

In our window, St. Eunice is shown in the background teaching her son Timothy, and above her head is a book bearing the Latin inscription Verbum dei, The Word of God, representing her role in giving St. Timothy his education.