ONUPHRIUS, St. — Hermit of the Thebaid in Egypt, d. around the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th century (the date 375 has no foundation).
His feast is celebrated in the Latin Church on June 12 and in the Eastern Church on June 10. The only source from which information can be drawn is the biography left by Paphnutius, included in the Synaxaria. The circumstances surrounding O.’s life are largely fabulous. Having entered the monastery of Hermopolis and heard the life of the prophet Elijah and St. John the Baptist, he is said to have been inspired by the eremitical life, retiring into the desert where he lived for 60 years without seeing the face of any man, except Paphnutius, who assisted him at his death. His cult was brought to Italy (St. Onuphrius on the Janiculum in Rome), France, Germany, and Spain at the time of the Crusades. Art, inspired by the description left by Paphnutius, represents him either in the act of receiving Holy Communion from the hand of an angel or in frightful forms, shaggy, clothed in wild herbs, etc.
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