Onuphrius

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Saint Onuphrius
Ονούφριος Early depiction of Onuphrius on a Byzantine icon, 4th century Born unknown Died 4th century Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Churches
Oriental Orthodox Churches Feast June 12 PatronagePatron Saint of Weavers and Lawyers Saints Portal

Onuphrius (Greek: Ονούφριος, from Egyptian: Wnn-nfr meaning "he-who-is-continuingly-good"[1]), venerated as Saint Onuphrius in both the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Catholic Churches of Byzantine Rite; Venerable Onuphrius in Eastern Orthodoxy and Saint Nofer the Anchorite in Oriental Orthodoxy, lived as a hermit in the desert of Upper Egypt in the late 4th century, according to tradition.[citation needed]

Both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches traditionally mark his feast day on 12 June.

The account of Paphnutius the Ascetic, who encountered him in the Egyptian desert, forms the sole source for our knowledge of the life of Saint Onuphrius, who became a monk at a cenobitic monastery near Thebes, which he left to lead an eremitic life. For 60 to 70 years, Onuphrius lived alone in the desert and wore only his hair and a loincloth of leaves - this led to his becoming patron saint of weavers.[citation needed]

1 In Eastern Orthodoxy
2 In art
3 Name variants
4 Notes
5 See also
6 External links

In Eastern Orthodoxy

Then he went on to become a hermit. He is sometimes depicted as a half-man with a long beard and half-woman with a fig leaf.[citation needed] Such depiction can be found in the Snake Church in the Göreme valley open-air museum in Cappadocia, Turkey.[citation needed]

According to Eastern Orthodox tradition, Onuphrius was educated in law and philosophy before choosing an ascetic life, and he is the patron saint of lawyers.[citation needed]

In art

Onuphrius depicted as a "wild man".

Onuphrius became a popular subject in Medieval art: the period traditions of the "wild man" may partially account for this.[citation needed]

Name variants

His name appears very variously as Onuphrius, Onouphrius, Onofrius; and in different languages as Humphrey (English), Onofre (Portuguese, Spanish), Onofrio (Italian), etc. However, these European names may derive from the name Godfrey rather than the Egyptian[2].

Notes

^ See article: Gardiner, A. H. The Origin of Some English Personal Names, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 56, No. 2. (Jun., 1936), pp. 189-197. (JSTOR or Athens login required)
^ See ibid.