Editing Onuphrius

{{Short description|Egyptian hermit and saint}}
{{for|the 15th-century papal legate|Onofrio de Santa Croce}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix=[[Saint]]
|name=Onuphrius
|birth_date=320 AD
|death_date=400 AD
|feast_day=[[12 June]] (Western & Byzantine)<br>16 [[Paoni]] (Departure - [[Coptic Christianity]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.copticchurch.net/synaxarium/10_16.html#1 |title=Lives of Saints :: Paona 16 |publisher=Copticchurch.net |access-date=2020-02-27}}</ref><br>16 [[Hathor (month)|Hathor]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.copticchurch.net/synaxarium/3_16.html#2 |title=Lives of Saints :: Hator 16 |publisher=Copticchurch.net |access-date=2020-02-27}}</ref> (Consecration of Church - [[Coptic Christianity]])
|venerated_in=[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]<br>[[Roman Catholic Church]]<br>[[Oriental Orthodox Churches]]<br>[[Eastern Catholic Churches]]
|image=Saint Onuphrius Emmanuel Tzanes.png
|caption=Saint Onuphrius by [[Emmanuel Tzanes]], 1662
|birth_place=Ethiopia
|death_place=Egypt
|titles=Hermit
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|attributes=[[loincloth]] made from [[leaves]], [[beard|long beard]] and [[long hair|hair]];  hermit with an angel bringing him the Eucharist or bread; hermit with a crown at his feet<ref name=autogenerated6>{{cite web |title= Saint Onuphrius | url = http://saints.sqpn.com/sainto14.htm | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080804031426/http://saints.sqpn.com/sainto14.htm | archive-date = 2008-08-04 |website= Patron Saints Index | date= 2008-08-04}}</ref><ref name="Stracke">{{cite web |last1=Stracke |first1=Richard |title= Saint Onuphrius: The Iconography| url = http://www.christianiconography.info/onuphrius.html |website= Christian Iconography | date=2015-10-20}}</ref>
|patronage=weavers;<ref name=autogenerated6 /> jurists<ref name=autogenerated5>{{cite web  |author= lüder h niemeyer |title= Onuphrius of Egypt, Patron also of Weavers & Jurists; Cort, Cornelis: Saint Onuphrius with the Rosary| url = http://www.luederhniemeyer.com/prints/15267_e.php | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081011120342/http://www.luederhniemeyer.com/prints/15267_e.php | url-status = usurped | archive-date = October 11, 2008 | date=2015-10-20}}</ref> [[Centrache]], [[Italy]]<ref name=autogenerated6 />
|major_shrine=
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
|prayer=
|prayer_attrib=
}}

'''Onuphrius''' (also '''Onoufrios'''; {{langx|el|Ὀνούφριος|Onouphrios}}) lived as a [[hermit]] in the desert of [[Upper Egypt]] in the 4th or 5th centuries. He is venerated as '''Saint Onuphrius''' in both the [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] and [[Eastern Catholic Church|Eastern Catholic]] churches, as '''Venerable Onuphrius''' in [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodoxy]], and as '''Saint Nofer the Anchorite''' in [[Oriental Orthodoxy]].{{sfn|Butler|Burns|2000|p=94}}

==Life and legends==
[[File:OnuphriusByzantineIcon4thCentury.jpg|thumb|150 px|left|Saint Onuphrius]]
Onuphrius was one of the [[Desert Fathers]] who made a great impression on Eastern spirituality in the third and fourth centuries, around the time that Christianity was emerging as the dominant faith of the [[Roman Empire]]. At this time many Christians were inspired to go out into the desert and live in prayer in the harsh environment of extreme heat and cold, with little to eat and drink, surrounded by all sorts of dangerous animals and robbers.<ref name=ukrainian/>

It is uncertain in which century Onuphrius lived; 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.{{sfn|Butler|Burns|2000|p=94}} Even the authorship is uncertain; "Paphnutius", a common name of Egyptian origin in the [[Thebaid|Upper Thebaid]], may refer to Paphnutius of Scetis, a 4th-century abbot of [[Lower Egypt]], rather than Paphnutius the Ascetic.{{sfn|Butler|Burns|2000|pp=95–96}} "But Paphnutius the Great [i.e. Paphnutius the Ascetic]," [[Alban Butler]] writes, "also had a number of stories to tell of visions and miraculous happenings in the desert, some of them in much the same vein as the story of Onuphrius."{{sfn|Butler|Burns|2000|pp=95–96}}

The name Onuphrius is thought to be a Hellenized form of a [[Copts|Coptic]] name ''Unnufer'', ultimately from the [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] ''[[:wikt:wnn-nfr|wnn-nfr]]'' meaning "perfect one", or "he who is continually good", an epithet of the god [[Osiris]].<ref>{{cite journal
  |title = The Egyptian Origin of Some English Personal Names
  |last = Gardiner
  |first = Alan H.
  |journal = [[Journal of the American Oriental Society]]
  |issn = 0003-0279
  |volume = 56
  |issue = 2
  |year = 1936
  |pages = 189–97
  |doi = 10.2307/594666
  |jstor = 594666
  }}</ref>

A tradition, not found in Paphnutius' account, states that Onuphrius had studied [[jurisprudence]] and [[philosophy]] before becoming a monk near [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]] and then a hermit.<ref name=autogenerated5 />

According to Paphnutius's account, Paphnutius undertook a pilgrimage to study the hermits' way of life and to determine whether it was for him. Wandering in the desert for 16 days, on the 17th day Paphnutius came across a wild figure covered in hair, wearing a loincloth of leaves. Frightened, Paphnutius ran away, up a mountain, but the figure called him back, shouting, "Come down to me, man of God, for I am a man also, dwelling in the desert for the love of God."{{sfn|Butler|Burns|2000|p=94}}
[[Image:Kidron jerusalem (10533).jpg|thumb|250px|Stone carving above the entrance of the [[St. Onuphrius Monastery]] in [[Akeldama]], Jerusalem (Potter's field). The image shows Onuphrius bowing down to an angel. Notable features are his long beard and leaf loincloth.]]
Turning back, Paphnutius talked to the wild figure, who introduced himself as Onuphrius and explained that he had once been a monk at a large monastery in the Thebaid but who had now lived as a hermit for 70 years, enduring extreme thirst, hunger, and discomforts. He said that it was his guardian angel who had brought him to this desolate place.<ref name=ukrainian/> Onuphrius took Paphnutius to his cell, and they spoke until sunset, when bread and water miraculously appeared outside of the hermit's cell.{{sfn|Butler|Burns|2000|p=94}}

They spent the night in the prayer, and in the morning Paphnutius discovered that Onuphrius was near death. Paphnutius, distressed, asked the hermit if he should occupy Onuphrius' cell after the hermit's death, but Onuphrius told him, "That may not be, thy work is in Egypt with thy brethren."{{sfn|Butler|Burns|2000|p=94}} Onuphrius asked Paphnutius for there to be a memorial with incense in Egypt in remembrance of the hermit. He then blessed the traveler and died.{{sfn|Butler|Burns|2000|p=94}}

Due to the hard and rocky ground, Paphnutius could not dig a hole for a grave, and therefore covered Onuphrius' body in a cloak, leaving the hermit's body in a cleft of the rocks. After the burial, Onuphrius' cell crumbled, which Paphnutius took to be a sign that he should not stay.{{sfn|Butler|Burns|2000|p=94}}

One scholar has written that Onuphrius' life "fits the mold of countless desert hermits or [[anchorite]]s. ...[However] despite its predictability, Paphnutius' ''Life of Onuphrius'' is marked by several unique details. ...The years of Onuphrius' youth were passed in a monastery that observed the rule of strict silence; a [[Red Deer|hind]] instructed him in Christian rites and liturgy. During his sixty years in the desert, Onuphrius' only visitor was an angel who delivered a [[Sacramental bread|Host]] every Sunday."<ref>Peter W. Parshall; Rainer Schoch, National Gallery of Art (U.S.); ''Origins of European Printmaking'' (Yale University Press, 2005), 318.</ref>

==Veneration==
[[Image:Saint onuphre.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Onuphrius depicted as a "wild man".]]

Both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches traditionally mark his [[feast day]] on [[June 12 (Orthodox Liturgics)|12 June]].<ref>[https://oca.org/saints/lives/2000/06/12/107799-venerable-onuphrius-the-great "Venerable Onuphrius the Great", Orthodox Church in America]</ref> A ''Life'' of Onuphrius of later Greek origin states that the saint died on June 11; however, his feast day was celebrated on June 12 in the Eastern Orthodox calendars from an early date.

The legend of Saint Onuphrius was depicted in [[Pisa|Pisa's]] camposanto (monumental cemetery), and in [[Rome]] the church [[Sant'Onofrio (Rome)|Sant'Onofrio]] was built in his honor on the [[Janiculan Hill]] in the fifteenth century.{{sfn|Butler|Burns|2000|p=96}}

Antony, the [[archbishop of Novgorod]], writing around 1200 AD, stated that Onuphrius' head was conserved in the church of Saint Acindinus (Akindinos), [[Constantinople]].<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web|url=http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/56850|title=Sant' Onofrio su santiebeati.it|website=Santiebeati.it|access-date=2018-03-17}}</ref>

For several decades Orthodox seminarians in [[Poland]] have begun their spiritual training in the monastery of St. Onuphrius in Jablechna. It is said that the saint himself chose the place for it, appearing nearly four hundred years ago to fishermen and leaving them an icon of himself on the banks of the [[Bug (river)|river Bug]].<ref name=ukrainian>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ukrainian-orthodoxy.org/saints/beauty/OnuphriusEng.htm |title="Venerable Onuphrius the Great", Ukrainian Orthodoxy |access-date=2013-03-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725072601/http://www.ukrainian-orthodoxy.org/saints/beauty/OnuphriusEng.htm |archive-date=2008-07-25 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[St. Onuphrius Monastery]] in [[Jerusalem]] is located at the far end of Gai Ben Hinnom, the [[Gehenna]] valley of hell, situated within the site of a Jewish cemetery from the [[Second Temple period]]. The structure is built among and includes many typical burial niches common to that period. The monastery also marks the location of Hakeldama, the purported place where [[Judas Iscariot]] hanged himself.

Saint Onuphrius was venerated in [[Munich]], [[Basel]], and southern [[Germany]], and the Basel [[Renaissance Humanism|humanist]] [[Sebastian Brant]] (who named his own son Onuphrius<ref name=autogenerated3>Peter W. Parshall; Rainer Schoch, National Gallery of Art (U.S.); ''Origins of European Printmaking'' (Yale University Press, 2005), 319.</ref>) published a broadside named ''In Praise of the Divine Onuphrius and Other Desert Hermit Saints''.<ref name=autogenerated3 /> Onuphrius was depicted in a 1520 painting by [[Hans Schäufelein]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bridgemanartondemand.com/art/205761/St_Onuphrius_c1520|title=Art.com - Bridgeman Collection|website=www.bridgemanartondemand.com|language=en|access-date=2018-03-17}}</ref>

===Art===
[[File:Battistello Caracciolo - St Onophrius - WGA04067.jpg|thumb|left|[[Battistello Caracciolo]], Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome]]
[[Image:Yilanli (Snake) Church.jpg|thumb|right|175px|Fresco of Onuphrius (on left) in the [[Snake Church]].]]
Images of Saint Onuphrius were conflated with those of the medieval "[[wild man]]".<ref>[http://www.nga.gov/press/exh/206/index.htm National Gallery of Art | Press Office<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080830070851/http://www.nga.gov/press/exh/206/index.htm |date=2008-08-30 }}</ref> In art, he is depicted as a wild man completely covered with hair, wearing a girdle of leaves.{{sfn|Butler|Burns|2000|p=96}}

He is depicted at [[Snake Church]] (''Yilanlı Kilise'') in the [[Churches of Göreme, Turkey|Göreme valley open-air museum]] in [[Cappadocia]], [[Turkey]].<ref>[http://www.goreme.org/churches/yilanli/index.htm "Yilanlı Kilise", Goreme.org]</ref>

He became the [[patron saint]] of weavers due to the fact that he was depicted "dressed only in his own abundant hair, and a loin-cloth of leaves".

He (S. Onofrio) was named co-patron of the city of [https://web.archive.org/web/20120328113921/http://www.santonofrio.com/home.htm Palermo] in 1650.
[[File:Bonsi onofrio DPA 6300023.jpg|thumb|[[Giovanni Bonsi (painter)|Giovanni Bonsi]], "[https://library.nga.gov/permalink/01NGA_INST/1p5jkvq/alma99489783804896 Saint Humphrey with a Donor]," 1380, Villa La Pietra, Florence, photo by Foto Reali, Foto Reali Archive, [https://www.nga.gov/research/library/imagecollections.html Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC]]]

===Name variants===
His name appears very variously as '''Onuphrius''', '''Onouphrius''', '''Onofrius''' and in different languages as '''Onofre''' (Portuguese, Spanish), '''Onofrei''' (Romanian), '''[[Onofrio]]''' (Italian), etc. In [[Arabic]], the saint was known as ''Abū Nufir'' ({{langx|ar|ابو نفر}}) or as ''Nofer'' ({{langx|ar|نوفر}}), which, besides being a variant of the name Onuphrius, also means "herbivore".<ref name=autogenerated1 /> Onuphrius and Onofrio are sometimes Anglicized as '''[[wikt:Humphrey|Humphrey]]''', an unrelated name that is usually given a [[Germanic name|Germanic]] etymology.<!--as in wiktionary-->

===Folklore===
Sicilians pray to Saint Onuphrius when they have lost something. The prayer has many variants but it generally mentions the miraculous properties of Saint Onuphrius' hair. It is widely accepted that repeating the prayer whilst looking for something like keys, a misplaced ring, or anything else, will greatly help in finding it sooner.{{Citation needed|date=January 2012}}

St Onophrius' remains (Reliquary) are held in a sanctuary at [[Sutera]] (Sicily) where a feast is held in his honor every 1st Sunday of August and the saint's remains are carried around the town with a priest, marching band and pilgrims.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}}

==See also==
* [[San Onofre (disambiguation)|San Onofre]]
* [[Venerable]]
* [[Hermit]]
* [[St. Onuphrius Monastery]]
{{-}}
==References==
{{reflist|35em}}

===Sources===
* {{cite book |first1=Alban |last1=Butler |first2=Paul |last2=Burns |title=Butler's Lives of the Saints |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |year=2000}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*{{in lang|it}} [http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/56850 Sant'Onofrio]
*{{in lang|es}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20080802140320/http://sanonofre.info/ San Onofre]
*{{in lang|es}} [http://www.san-onofre.com.ar San Onofre]
*[http://www.colecciondeverda.com/2012/11/san-onofre.html Saint Onuphrius engraved by a Flemish artist from the De Verda collection]
*[http://cdm16028.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/105863/rec/1 The Wild Man: Medieval Myth and Symbolism], an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Onuphrius (no. 20)

{{Coptic saints}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:4th-century deaths]]
[[Category:4th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:4th-century Egyptian people]]
[[Category:Saints from Roman Egypt]]
[[Category:Egyptian hermits]]
[[Category:Angelic visionaries]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:320s births]]
[[Category:Wild men]]