---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Bryce-Thomas, R. M.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 12
number: 9
published: 1909-07
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'R. M. Bryce-Thomas, "St. Paul’s Companions in Rome—IX. Tychicus," *Improvement Era* 12, no. 9 (July 1909): 708.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1209unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera1209unse
start_page: 708
end_page: 708
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1909-07)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1209unse
  publication_year: 1909
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1909, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# St. Paul’s Companions in Rome—IX. Tychicus

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ST.   PAUL'S COMPANIONS IN ROME.

                      BY COL. R. M. BRYCE-THOMAS.

                               IX.   — TYCHICUS.
        We hear of Tychicus first in A. D. 59, at Ephesus, at the time
that St. Paul left for Macedonia after the great tumult raised by
the silversmith Demetrius regarding the worship of the goddess
Diana (Acts 19: 23 et seq., and Acts 20: 14).  He was a disciple
from Ephesus, and had grown into the affections of the great
Apostle, who a few years later called him "a beloved brother, and
a faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord" (Col. 4:7). He
remained a firm friend of St. Paul up to the close of his life.
Tychicus is a Greek word meaning 'fortunate," and has about the
                                           '

same meaning as the Hebrew word "Gad," or the Latin words
"Felix" or "Fortunatus."     Dr. Plumptre says that the name was
very     common among slaves and freedmen, and he refers to it as
having been found on a Christian inscription discovered             in   the
catacombs of Priscilla.                       now in the Lateran
                               That inscription    is

Museum in Rome. He also refers to the name having been found
on a non-Christian inscription giving the names of the household
of the Emperor Claudius, now in the Vatican Museum, as belong-
ing to an architect. Such callings were frequently hereditary, and
it is   said that architects found their best openings at that time at
Ephesus.       For   this   reason the idea had become prevalent that
Tychicus was an architect by profession.
        He seems to have been employed by St.           Paul as one of his
emissaries or messengers to the churches to carry news to them
of his sufferings, of his successes, of the oppositions he had to en-
counter, and of his health and general treatment in Rome; and we