Saint Onuphrius

One day God gave inspiration to S aint Paphnutius the solitar saint Paphnuce le solitaire A solitary who discovered Onuphrius and recorded his life. y to go far into the desert of the Thebaid, to di désert de la Thébaïde Region of Upper Egypt where Athanasia retired. scover there the most hidden hermits, and to receive from them new instructions for his perfection; he obeyed this movement, which was undoubtedly approved by his superiors; and, after several days of travel and various rather extraordinary encounters, especially with an angel in human form, who encouraged and strengthened him, he perceived from afar a man entirely covered in hair like a beast, and who had no other clothing than a belt of leaves that tightened around his loins. This spectacle filled him with great fear, and, in the thought that it was a phantom, or a monster, or some bandit who was retreating into these inaccessible places, he fled to the top of a nearby mountain. This man followed him; but not being able to climb the height because his age and his great austerities had extremely weakened his body, he sat down at the bottom, and cried out: "Holy personage, fear nothing, I am a man like you; come down, and do not deprive me of your conversation." Paphnutius, recognizing by this that it was a servant of God, descended immediately and came to throw himself at his feet: but the solitary raised him up, and having testified to the joy he had at his coming, he made him sit beside him. Then Paphnutius, taking a holy liberty, begged him to tell him his name, how he had come to this desert, and what he was doing there. Upon which the solitary made this speech to him:

I will gladly satisfy all that you wish of me, because it is the will of God: my name is Onuphrius, and I have be en here Onuphre Hermit of the Thebaid desert who lived in solitude for 70 years. for seventy years. I was previously a religious in a monastery in the Thebaid, where there were no fewer than one hundred brothers who had but one soul and one heart, and who lived in great silence and very fervent devotion toward God. As I heard them praise the solitary and eremitic life, such as that of our honorable father, the prophet Elijah, and of Saint John the Baptist, and prefer it prophète Élie Prophet who announced the punishment of Ahab. infinit ely to the cenobiti saint Jean-Baptiste Saint whose feast day coincides with that of the blessed John. c life because of its perfect detachment from all things of the earth, I resolved to embrace it: being thus inspired by God, who changed me into another man, and having taken bread for four or five days, I stole away by night from this holy community, and took the path to this desert, praying earnestly to Our Lord to serve as my guide. From then on I perceived a light that went before me and led me; this frightened me and made me almost resolve to abandon my undertaking and return to my monastery; but, as I was in this thought, I heard a voice that said to me: Do not fear; I am your guardian angel who has always accompanied and defended you since your birth; I will not abandon you and will lead you to the place where divine Providence wills that you spend the rest of your life. Indeed, having made himself visible, he led me for the space of seven miles, and placed me near a cell of a very religious aspect. I approached the door to see if it was inhabited, and I said, according to the custom of the brothers: Bless me, my father. There came out a venerable old man with a bearing and a look so modest and so full of grace that one could not look at him without respect. I immediately threw myself at his feet, recognizing in him an extraordinary character of holiness, and begged him to give me his blessing. He raised me up with much kindness, and calling me by my name, he said to me: Enter, my son Onuphrius: God has sent you here to undertake a life similar to mine. He will help you, and I hope that, by his grace, you will persevere in your vocation. I therefore entered this venerable cave, and remained a few days with him, during which he taught me, with great care, the way of life of the solitaries; but when he saw me sufficiently instructed and that I showed enough courage to bear all the hardships and to resist all the temptations of the eremitic life, he said to me: Come, my son, I must lead you further, into a place even more deserted and more remote; for such is the will of God: you will remain there alone, and you will sustain there the terrible combats of this state. We walked then for four days and four nights, and, after this time, having found a small cavern near which there was a palm tree, he said to me: This is the place that God has prepared for you. We blessed Him for the cares of His Providence, and I consented to spend the rest of my life in this place. He remained another thirty days with me, giving me entirely divine instructions. Then he returned to his own cell, and, from that time on, we saw each other only once a year. When he was dead, I buried him near my cavern, considering his body as a precious relic.

Paphnutius listened to this account with extraordinary joy and attention; but, when the Saint had ceased speaking, he begged him to tell him if he had not suffered many hardships at the beginning of a life so new and so different from that of other men. "It is unimaginable," replied Onuphrius, "and the hardships I endured were so terrible that often I was as if beyond hope of being able to bear their rigor. Hunger and thirst reduced me almost to death; the heat of the sun roasted my body, and the cold of the nights froze my limbs, which had neither clothing nor coverings to defend them; finally, after my patience had been long tested, God sent an angel who took care of my life and my daily sustenance; moreover, the palm tree that is near my cell provides me with twelve clusters of dates per year, one for each month; I also have herbs that grow naturally in this desert; not only have I been sustained by them, but I have found in them more taste and sweetness than in honey. Thus I have experienced the truth of this sentence of Our Lord: Man does not live by bread alone, but he lives also by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God; therefore, my brother Paphnutius, strive to follow His will, and do not doubt that He has a particular care for you, and will provide you with everything that is necessary for you."

These discourses delighted the good Paphnutius more and more, and filled him with such consolation that he no longer remembered the hardship he had endured to reach this remote place. He expressed this to Saint Onuphrius, telling him that he was well rewarded for his fatigues, since he had the happiness of finding him and learning from his own mouth this admirable conduct of divine Providence toward him. Saint Onuphrius said to him: "This is not enough, my dear brother; you must come with me to my cell." This was all that Paphnutius desired. He went there in his company, and had the happiness of entering it, of contemplating it, and of seeing also the palm tree that had been his provider for so many years. The journey of two or three miles they made to arrive there did not prevent them from beginning a long prayer before resting; when it was finished, they sat down and conversed again, until nightfall, of heavenly discourses, and especially of the kindnesses and liberality of God. At sunset, bread and water appeared in the middle of the cell, and Onuphrius said to Paphnutius: "Eat, my brother, for I see well that you are suffering extremely from hunger and thirst." But Paphnutius protested to him that, however much hunger and thirst he might have, he would take nothing if he did not eat with him. Thus, the two Saints ate of this miraculous bread and drank of this water that the amiable Providence of Our Lord had sent them. They then spent the whole night in prayer, without the fatigue and weariness of the one, or the old age and frailty of the other, being able to persuade them to take a moment of respite. The next day, when day had come, Paphnutius, casting his eyes upon Onuphrius, perceived him to be extremely changed and quite wasted, like a man approaching death. This sight troubled him and filled him with fear; but the Saint said to him: "Do not fear, my brother Paphnutius, for Our Lord, who is infinitely merciful, has sent you here to lay my body in the earth. I am finishing the course of my life today, and I am going to the place of rest; if you go to Egypt, tell the other religious who are there wha t I ha Égypte The place where the legendary meeting between Dismas and the Holy Family takes place. ve told you; make known to them the great mercies I have received from God, and tell them that He will never refuse them to those who, having recourse to Him, have masses said, or offer perfumes for the altar; or, if they do not have the means, will recite a Pater noster in my memory, because it is a grace that I have asked of Him."

Paphnutius told him that, if God disposed of him, he wished to take his place and remain the rest of his life in his cave; but the Saint replied: "That this was not what God asked of him; that He had not brought him to remain in this place, but to give him burial and to go then to publish in the world the wonders he had seen." "One must not resist God," said Paphnutius, throwing himself at his feet; "but, since I am to be deprived of your dear presence, give me, I pray you, your blessing, and obtain for me from the mercy of Our Lord, that I may one day possess Him in your company." The Saint gave him great hopes of this and said to him, while blessing him, that God would fill him with His graces; that He would open his eyes to know His divinity; that He would confirm him in true charity and that He would assist him so powerfully that he would have nothing to fear on the dreadful day of his judgment; and, having admirably consoled him with these words, he began his prayer again, which he accompanied with many tears, groans, and sighs. Finally, having prostrated himself against the earth, he joyfully rendered his blessed soul into the hands of Him who was to crown it with His eternal glory in heaven.

At that very hour, Paphnutius heard the heavenly spirits singing hymns and canticles in honor of this admirable solitary; which made him realize that it was more reasonable to commend himself to his prayers than to offer them for his relief. He split in two the large cloak he was wearing, and, keeping one half for himself, he wrapped the holy body of the deceased in the other, and having carried it into the hollow of a rock, he covered it with a great heap of stones. After having rendered him this just duty, not believing himself obliged to what he had told him about returning to Egypt, he resolved to remain in his cave; but as it collapsed of its own accord, and the palm tree that had provided him with dates also fell, he recognized well that God did not approve of this plan. Thus, having eaten the rest of the bread that Divine Providence had sent the day before, he set out to return to his monastery. The angel who had appeared to him in human form also served as his guide on his return, and, leading him by another path, showed him new wonders that confirmed him in the high esteem he had conceived for the incomparable merit of Saint Onuphrius.

Indeed, after four days of travel, having arrived at a cell that was built on a hill, he saw a venerable old man whitened in the exercises of the solitary life, who said to him at once: "You are our brother Paphnutius; it is you who have had the h onor of Paphnuce A solitary who discovered Onuphrius and recorded his life. giving burial to our holy Father Onuphrius." Three other hermits of the same age arrived at the same time and also said the same thing to him; which made him realize that these holy solitaries were entirely heavenly men, and that they possessed the gift of prophecy. Then, they told him that they had all four lived in this desert for sixty years, without having seen, in all that time, a single man other than him; that God had nourished them until then in a miraculous manner, by sending each of them every day a very delicate and very white bread; that they lived separately all week, but that on Sunday they gathered to attend the holy Mysteries celebrated by one of them, who was a priest. They asked him at the same time to take a meal with them; and, by an additional miracle, they saw before them five very beautiful loaves, without anyone appearing to have brought them. They ate them with a thousand acts of thanksgiving for the goodness of God, and, after having spent the whole night in prayer, as the next day was a Sunday, the priest said Mass, and Paphnutius attended it; he then returned to Egypt, where he published what he had seen.

The death o f Saint Onuph saint Onuphre Hermit of the Thebaid desert who lived in solitude for 70 years. rius occurred on June 12, as is noted in the Roman Martyrology, the Menologion of the Greeks, and in the lives of the holy Fathers; however, the year cannot be determined because it is not known precisely who this Paphnutius was who wrote his life. Nevertheless, it is conjectured that he came into the world towards the beginning of the empire of Diocletian, and that he died under the reign of Valens. There is also another Saint Onuphrius, who is mentioned on November 5, in the martyrdom of Saint Galation and Saint Episteme; but the most famous is the one whose life we have just written.

He is commonly depicted with an overgrown beard and hair; sometimes with a palm tree.

We have drawn this life from Simeon Metaphrast Siméon Métaphraste Byzantine hagiographer, author of the Acts of the Saints. es and Surius Surius Hagiographer and compiler of saints' lives. , who transmitted to us the account of Paphnutius.