Life in the Desert
According to the OCA synaxarion, Onuphrius was raised at the Eratus monastery near the city of Hermopolis. There he learned from the Fathers about the desert ascetics and desired to imitate their spiritual struggles. He departed the monastery secretly one night, following a brilliant ray of light, and his Guardian Angel instructed him to serve the Lord in the wilderness.
After traveling six or seven miles, he discovered a cave inhabited by an elderly monk. The Elder taught him about ascetic struggle and the temptations of demons, and once Onuphrius was sufficiently prepared, the Elder moved him to another cave for solitary practice, visiting him once a year until the Elder's own death. Onuphrius then lived in complete isolation for sixty years.
By the account of the synaxarion, his sustenance came from a date-palm tree whose twelve branches each bore fruit in succession over the months of the year, ensuring perpetual nourishment, and from a spring of pure water. An angel brought him Holy Communion each Saturday and Sunday. He was covered from head to foot with white hair and girded his loins with the leaves of desert plants.
The Account of Paphnutius
The only primary historical source for the life of Onuphrius is the account written by Paphnutius the Ascetic. According to this account, Paphnutius had wandered the desert for sixteen days when he came upon a wild figure and at first fled in fear. The hermit called out to him, 'Come down to me, man of God, for I am a man also, dwelling in the desert for the love of God.'
The two spent the night in prayer, and bread and water appeared outside the hermit's cell. Learning that Onuphrius's death was near, Paphnutius asked to remain and succeed him in that place, but Onuphrius refused, telling him that his work was in Egypt among the brethren. Before he died, Onuphrius asked that a memorial with incense be kept in Egypt in remembrance of the hermit.
By the synaxarion's account, Onuphrius reposed uttering the prayer, 'Into Thy hands, my God, I commend my spirit.' Because the rocky terrain prevented digging a proper grave, Paphnutius covered the body in a cloak within a crevice in the rock and laid stones over it. The hermit's cell afterward crumbled, which Paphnutius interpreted as a sign that he should depart.
Relics & Shrines
According to tradition, the head of Onuphrius was conserved in the church of Saint Acindinus (Akindinos) in Constantinople, an arrangement attested by Archbishop Antony of Novgorod, who wrote around the year 1200. A reliquary is presently housed in Sutera, Sicily, where a feast in his honor is held every first Sunday of August.
Shrines and monasteries dedicated to him include Sant'Onofrio on the Janiculan Hill in Rome, founded in the fifteenth century; the Monastery of St. Onuphrius in Jerusalem, in the valley of Gai Ben Hinnom (Gehenna); and the Monastery of St. Onuphrius in Jablechna, Poland.
Veneration & Legacy
Onuphrius is depicted in art as a wild man entirely covered with hair, wearing a girdle of leaves and often accompanied by an angel delivering the Eucharist. By tradition he is regarded as the patron of weavers and of jurists.
His veneration was especially strong in Germanic regions, including Munich, Basel, and southern Germany; the Basel humanist Sebastian Brant published a work titled 'In Praise of the Divine Onuphrius and Other Desert Hermit Saints'. In Sicily he is traditionally invoked by those searching for lost objects.
Some traditions place his origins in Ethiopia. He is to be distinguished from Onuphrius of Malsk, who is commemorated on the same day.
