ON ST. ONESIMUS THE APOSTLE, BISHOP OF EPHESUS, MARTYR
Year of Christ 109
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Onesimus the Apostle, Bishop of Ephesus, Martyr (St.)
By G. H.
Section I. The conversion of St. Onesimus, the title of Apostle, the Epistle of St. Paul on his behalf to Philemon.
[1] When the holy Apostle Paul was detained as a prisoner at Rome for two years, among other epistles which he sent from his chains to various persons, in his last year he wrote a public letter to all citizens of the city of Colossae in Greater Phrygia, and appended to it a private and very brief one addressed to Philemon. Cornelius a Lapide, Benedictus Justinianus, Tirinus, and other interpreters, together with St. Chrysostom and Oecumenius, attribute that city to Phrygia. Pliny mentions it in book 5, chapter 32; Herodotus in book 7; and Strabo in book 12. The year in which Paul was writing was the fourth of Nero's reign, the year of Christ 58, when the consuls were the Emperor Nero for the third time and Valerius Messala. The occasion for writing that epistle to Philemon was provided by St. Onesimus. Philemon was a noble and wealthy man, a leading citizen of the city of Colossae, formerly a Gentile but then converted to the faith of Christ; it is indicated in the inscription or opening of this epistle that the faithful were accustomed to assemble for worship in his house, as in premises set apart for sacred worship. "Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved and fellow worker, and to Appia our dearest sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the Church which is in your house. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." It is believed that St. Archippus succeeded Bishop St. Epaphras in pastoral care; he is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on the twentieth day of March, as on the twenty-second of November are Sts. Philemon and Appia, or Apphia, whom very many consider to have been his wife. The Apostle wished to have Sts. Archippus and Appia as supporters before Philemon in this pious cause, and as intercessors on behalf of St. Onesimus, in both his own name and that of Timothy, as St. Jerome, Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Theophylact, along with many other interpreters, teach concerning this epistle.
[2] Among other servants of this Philemon was St. Onesimus, a Gentile and native of the same Phrygia, who came to Rome as a fugitive — not so much from love of Paul, whose preaching he had sampled only slightly while in Asia, as Baronius relates at the year 60, number 40, but rather to claim his freedom for himself, having stolen certain belongings of his master, as St. Jerome, Theodoret, and Theophylact gathered from these words of Paul at verse 18: "If he has wronged you in anything or owes you anything, charge it to me." When therefore St. Onesimus was living at Rome, by divine goodness so disposing, he encountered St. Paul, by whom he was led to faith and repentance, received baptism, and was sent back to his master with a letter of commendation in which Paul abundantly signifies how greatly he esteems Onesimus and with what singular affection he regards him. And first, to win Philemon's goodwill for himself, he commemorates his virtues with a certain thanksgiving: "I give thanks to my God," he says from verse 4, "always making remembrance of you in my prayers, hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, that the sharing of your faith may become evident in the knowledge of every good work which is among you in Christ Jesus. For I had great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother." By this device, as St. Jerome attests, Paul heaps praises upon Philemon, so that he cannot refuse the favor that will be asked of him on behalf of St. Onesimus, since otherwise he would strip himself of his own praises. Thus he proceeds:
[3] "For this reason, having great confidence in Christ Jesus to command you in what pertains to the matter, yet for love's sake I rather beseech you, since you are such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I beseech you for my son whom I have begotten in my chains, Onesimus, who was once unprofitable to you, but now is profitable both to you and to me, whom I have sent back to you. Receive him, that is, my own heart, whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in the chains of the Gospel. But without your consent I wished to do nothing, so that your good deed might not be as of necessity but voluntary. For perhaps he therefore departed from you for a time, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave, but instead of a slave as a most dear brother, especially to me, and how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. If therefore you regard me as a partner, receive him as you would me. If he has wronged you in anything or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, have written with my own hand; I will repay — not to mention to you that you owe me your very self. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord: refresh my heart in the Lord. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even beyond what I say. At the same time, also prepare a lodging for me, for I hope that through your prayers I shall be given to you."
[4] Thus writes Paul, showing in this epistle how he values St. Onesimus for his virtue, with what singular love he cherishes him, and in what degree of affection he wishes him to be held by St. Philemon; and at the end he adds the greeting of those with whom he was then living at Rome, both he himself and St. Onesimus. "Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you," he says, "as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen." He greets the Colossians in the same names in chapter 4 of the epistle written to them, in which he writes the following about the journey of St. Onesimus and his companion: "Tychicus, a most beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord, will make known to you all things concerning me. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that he may know the things concerning you and comfort your hearts, together with Onesimus, a most beloved and faithful brother, who is one of you. They will make known to you all things that are done here." That this epistle was sent from Rome through Tychicus and Onesimus, and the other to Philemon through Onesimus, is added in Greek at the end of each epistle. In the latter these words are read: "ἐγράφη ἀπὸ Ῥώμης δι᾽ Ὀνησίμου οἰκέτου" — as if to say: "Written from the city of Rome and sent through Onesimus, a household servant." Tychicus is venerated on the twenty-ninth of April.
[5] What happened thereafter to St. Onesimus, the sacred Scriptures are silent. It does not seem possible to doubt that when he arrived at Colossae and delivered the said epistles of St. Paul both to the Christian citizens and to St. Philemon, he was immediately received with great kindness and granted his freedom, and was no longer regarded as a slave but as a brother, just as Paul had commended him with the most ardent love. Our Massutius explains this well in book 12 of the Life of St. Paul, chapter 12. He adds, from Theodoret, that Onesimus was sent back by Philemon to St. Paul at Rome, so that Paul might make use of his service in prison, which Paul had indicated he desired; and that St. Jerome should be understood as speaking of this period when he says in Epistle 62 to Theophilus that Onesimus, reborn among Paul's chains, began to be a Deacon instead of a slave. There, therefore, having been taken up among the clergy, he made such progress in virtue and holiness that he appears to have been ordained as an Apostolic Bishop and commended to St. Timothy, whom he eventually succeeded in administering the Church of Ephesus, as we shall presently relate.
[6] The ancient Martyrologies proclaim him both an Apostle and a disciple of St. Paul. The Greeks in the Great Menaea and the Anthologion on the fifteenth of February record: "Memory of the holy Apostle Onesimus, disciple of the holy Apostle Paul." Cytheraeus has the same in his Lives of the Saints. We shall treat of the appended eulogy below. In the Menologion edited by Canisius the following is read: "Birthday of the holy Martyr Onesimus, disciple of the holy Apostle Paul." The Latins venerate him on the sixteenth of February, with which day Rabanus and the manuscript Martyrology of the monastery of St. Cyriacus open in these words: "On the fourteenth day before the Kalends of March, St. Onesimus the Apostle." The Trier and Aachen manuscripts read: "On the fourteenth day before the Kalends of March, the birthday of St. Onesimus the Apostle." In the Liege manuscript of St. Lambert it is added: "Concerning whom the blessed Paul sends a personal letter to Philemon." The Cologne manuscript of St. Maria ad Gradus, Bede, and others likewise call him an Apostle. We have frequently noted that the title of Apostle was attributed to the first disciples of Christ and others of that era. Among these we have celebrated Titus, Parmenas, Timothy, and Ananias as Apostles in January. The author of the manuscript Florarium, deeming this excessive, substituted the title of Acolyte: "The birthday," he says, "of the blessed Onesimus, Acolyte, concerning whom the blessed Paul writes to Philemon." The Tournai manuscript of St. Martin and the Liessies manuscript read: "St. Onesimus, disciple of St. Paul the Apostle." Wandelbert also expresses this in verse:
The fourteenth shines with Juliana the Virgin, And honors Onesimus, blessed by Paul his teacher.
Section II. The Apostolic Episcopate of St. Onesimus. Whether he supplied the place of Timothy at Ephesus? Whether he preached in Spain?
[7] That Onesimus flourished as Bishop of Ephesus in Asia in the tenth year of the Emperor Trajan, the year of Christ 107, when St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was being led captive to Rome, will soon be established from the latter's epistles written in that year. That this Bishop Onesimus is the same person we have discussed thus far from St. Paul and other authors is confirmed, together with other Doctors of the Church, by the ancient Martyrologies, in some of which certain obscurities appear. First, at what precise time he was appointed Bishop of the Church of Ephesus. The manuscript Martyrology of St. Riquier has the following: "On the fourteenth day before the Kalends of March, at Rome, the passion of St. Onesimus, Bishop of the Ephesians, who was stoned by the Romans." The Cologne manuscript preserved among the Carmelites reads: "At Rome, the birthday of St. Onesimus, disciple of the Apostle Paul, whom Paul himself ordained at Ephesus, and who, brought to Rome, was stoned for Christ." Bede's printed text, Usuard, Notker, and Ado transmit further details requiring examination. "The birthday," says Usuard, "of the blessed Onesimus, concerning whom St. Paul writes to Philemon, whom the same Apostle, ordaining him Bishop and entrusting to him the word of preaching, left at the city of the Ephesians." Bede, Ado, and Notker interpose: "Over which Church he himself presided as Bishop after the blessed Timothy." Ado, together with Usuard, transmits the following concerning his martyrdom: "Brought to Rome and there stoned for the faith of Christ, he was first buried there; thence his body was brought to the place where he had been ordained Bishop." We stated on the twenty-fourth of January, in the Life of St. Timothy, section 2, number 8, that St. Timothy was killed in the first year of the Emperor Nerva, the year of Christ 97, the thirtieth year having elapsed since the death of St. Paul in the thirteenth year of Nero, the year of Christ 67, when he was slain together with St. Peter. Hence the meaning of the aforesaid words appears to be this: that St. Paul, after Onesimus was sent back by Philemon, instructed and ordained him an Apostolic Bishop and entrusted to him the word of preaching without limitation to any particular Church or city; yet he commanded him to remain for some time at the city of the Ephesians, while he retained St. Timothy with himself as a companion in labors; and that upon Timothy's death he designated and predicted that Onesimus would be appointed as his successor in that Church. In this manner the Roman Martyrology is to be understood, in which the following is read: "The birthday of the blessed Onesimus, concerning whom the holy Apostle Paul writes to Philemon, whom he also ordained Bishop of the Ephesians after St. Timothy and entrusted to him the word of preaching," etc. These matters are more clearly distinguished in Bede, Ado, and Notker. We think that a precisely similar arrangement was made among the Colossians, where St. Archippus supplied the place of Bishop St. Epaphras while the latter was with St. Paul at Rome, who calls him his fellow captive in Christ Jesus. Epaphras then returned to his See at Colossae and there received the palm of martyrdom for the sheep of Christ entrusted to him through valiant contest, on the nineteenth of July, as Bede, Usuard, and others record for that day, together with the Roman Martyrology.
[8] Among other regions cultivated in the faith and religion of Christ by St. Onesimus, Spain is placed by some. Hence in the Spanish Martyrology he is inscribed by Juan Tamayo Salazar in these words: "In Spain the memory of St. Onesimus, disciple of the blessed Paul and teacher of the entire region of Carpetania, is celebrated. When, having been manumitted by his master Philemon, he came to Colossae and thence to Patras, there he found the blessed Virgin Polyxena, a Spaniard, and her attendant Sarra, disciples of the blessed Andrew. Setting out with them for Spain, after many misfortunes at sea, he entered our lands, traversed Carpetania, and preached there; thence he returned to Ephesus, succeeded the blessed Timothy as Bishop of that city, and afterward, brought to Rome, after long struggles for the faith, was at last stoned to death." Thus that author. Among the Spanish writers who preceded him were Julian, Archpriest of St. Justa, surnamed Petrus, and Flavius Lucius Dexter, or those who published Chronicles and Adversaria under their names. In the Adversaria of Julian, after St. Indeletius had been recorded in chapter 70 as most celebrated along the coast of Carthage, and in chapter 71 Eucherius had been honored as a holy man throughout the Spains, the following is transmitted in chapter 72: "No less celebrated is the memory of St. Onesimus, Bishop of the Ephesians, who, setting out from the Spains to Ephesus in the year 103, governed that Church until the year 115, and under Trajan, seized at Ephesus and brought to Rome, severely tortured under the Governor Tertullus, was overwhelmed with stones at Rome on the fifteenth of February in the year 115." And chapter 73 continues: "Indeed the same man followed Paul, now free, to the Spains, where he preached; he returned with him to Rome and was present at Paul's martyrdom. Thence he set out for Colossae and came to Patras, where he found the Spanish Polyxena; and in the year 70 he came to Spain, was made a Priest by Julian, Bishop of the Carpetanians, and preached the Gospel in Spain for more than thirty-five years. Returning to Ephesus, he there succeeded Timothy, who had died in that year, namely 108." In the Chronicle of the same Julian, chapter 44, the following is narrated for the same year 108: "Xanthippe and Polyxena her wife" (rather, sister), "a most holy Virgin, and her companion Rebecca, likewise a Virgin, and St. Onesimus, disciple of St. Paul, frequently travel from Laminium to Toledo, and there, having consulted Eugenius, return home greatly encouraged." And chapter 45: "St. Onesimus frequently preaches at Toledo and traverses all of Carpetania; returning to Rome, he suffered manfully there for Christ and became a Martyr." Then chapter 46: "In this year 109, Xanthippe and Polyxena departed to a better life." These things have been published under the name of Julian Petrus. In the Chronicle of Dexter, a few words are read at the year 71, number 2: "St. Onesimus, disciple of St. Paul, from the city of Patara in Achaia, together with the holy Virgins Polyxena and Sarra, disciples of the Apostle Andrew, preaches throughout the Spains." She who is Sarra in Tamayo Salazar and Bivarius is Saria in Rodrigo Caro, and is called Rebecca in the Chronicle of Julian and the Greek Menaea.
[10] Sts. Xanthippe and Polyxena are venerated on the twenty-third of September, inscribed in the Roman Martyrology in these words: "In Spain, of the holy women Xanthippe and Polyxena, who were disciples of the Apostles." On the same day the Greeks in the Menologion and the Great Menaea, and in the Lives of the Saints in Cytheraeus, treat of the same. The Greek words of the Menaea are as follows: "Memory of the holy women Xanthippe and Polyxena, sisters."
"The sisters Xanthippe and Polyxena are received by the choirs of angels as co-dwellers."
"These were from the land of the Spaniards, in the time of Claudius Caesar. Of these, Xanthippe was the wife of Probus, who governed that region. She was instructed by the Apostle Paul when he visited that region, as was her husband along with many others. Polyxena was seized by a certain wicked man, but by the grace of God remained inviolate and was baptized by the Apostle Andrew. Many having been converted to the faith through her, she took with her Onesimus the Apostle and set out for her homeland of Spain; and after that long voyage and countless flights, having as a companion also Rebecca, with whom she had been baptized, she reached her sister Xanthippe. These, having spent the rest of their lives admirably and having displayed many virtues, departed to the Lord." The same is read in Cytheraeus.
[11] Baronius discusses the journey of St. Paul to the Spains at the year 61, numbers 2, 3, and 4, where he mentions Xanthippe and Polyxena. But by our reckoning this would have occurred in the year 59 or the following; we treated of it on the first of February in the Life of St. Caecilius the Martyr, numbers 18 and following. But that St. Onesimus was a companion of St. Paul on his journey and adhered to him until death, and afterward returned a second time to the Spains with St. Polyxena, we do not dare to affirm on the sole authority of Julian's Adversaria. Furthermore, we do not accept that after the year of Christ 70 he was made merely a Priest by Julian, Bishop of the Carpetanians, when we have shown that he had been ordained a Bishop by St. Paul many years before. The years expressed deserve the same credibility: for he would have lived in Spain for more than thirty-five years, from 70 to 108, in which year St. Timothy is said to have died, whereas it is established that he died in the year 97. We shall treat below of the year of St. Onesimus's death.
Section III. The Episcopate of St. Onesimus at Ephesus. Martyrdom consummated at Rome. The Acts of two saints named Onesimus confused.
[12] Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus (whom St. Jerome, in his work On Illustrious Men, chapter 45, asserts to have flourished in the times of the Emperor Severus), relates in the Life of St. Timothy published on the twenty-fourth of February, at number 7, that after the death of Timothy, the divine Apostle and Evangelist John, at the request of those who were then found to be the leaders of sacred affairs, assumed the presidency of the Apostolic throne and governed the most sacred See of that great Metropolis until the reign of Trajan — that is, the year of Christ 98 — at which time St. Onesimus, recalled from his Apostolic mission, being more than sixty years old, received the Church of Ephesus to govern as its proper Pastor. How admirably he cultivated that Church, which had been established by Sts. John the Evangelist and Timothy, in faith and in all other virtues, is taught by St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, in his epistle to the Ephesians, written in the year of Christ 107, when St. Onesimus with several Ephesians met him at Smyrna as he was journeying from Syria to Rome. We treated of the epistles of St. Ignatius in his Life, section 6, where at number 46 we showed that the more correct and more genuine versions are those published in Greek from a Florentine manuscript codex by Isaac Voss in the year 1646, together with an ancient Latin translation found in England. From that source we excerpt a passage from the epistle to the Ephesians in which more particular information about St. Onesimus is indicated. It reads thus on page 17:
"I received your great multitude in the name of God in Onesimus, who is indescribable in love and your Bishop in the flesh; whom I pray that according to Jesus Christ you will love, and that all of you will be like him. For blessed is He who granted you, being worthy, to possess such a Bishop." And on page 21: "Onesimus himself exceedingly praises your divine order, because you all live according to truth, and because no heresy dwells among you, but neither do you listen to anyone speaking more than Jesus Christ in truth." He greets his Antiochenes in the name of the same Onesimus in the epistle written to them: "Onesimus, Pastor of the Ephesians, greets you," he says. He mentions the same greeting in his epistle to Heron, then Deacon of the Church of the Antiochenes and afterward Bishop.
[13] Following the example of St. Ignatius, St. Onesimus was ordered to be seized and bound by the Proconsul of Asia, and, as the records of the Roman Martyrology testify, was brought in chains to Rome and stoned for the faith of Christ; he was first buried there, and then his body was brought to the place where he had been ordained Bishop. Bede, Usuard, Ado, Notker, and others agree. As to the time, it is established that Nicephorus erred in book 3, chapter 11, when he states that Onesimus suffered martyrdom under Domitian, after whom St. Timothy, who was killed under Nerva, still lived. We have said that St. Onesimus met Ignatius in the year 107. Petavius places the death of St. Onesimus in the year after the martyrdom of St. Ignatius, which occurred in the year 108, and this is also most approved by us. That year is 109. In the Adversaria of Julian he is said to have died in the year 115, which is counted as the eighth from the death of St. Timothy placed in the year 108. These claims do not deserve refutation.
[14] Concerning the martyrdom of St. Onesimus, Galesinius transmits the following: "Of St. Onesimus the Martyr, who, being a disciple of the blessed Apostle Paul, after Paul's martyrdom was arrested by order of Tertullus, Prefect of the City, and brought to Puteoli, where, severely beaten, since he refused to abandon the faith but rather proclaimed Christ as God more freely and more constantly, with his legs and arms broken, he shed his blood for His name." Thus Galesinius, whom Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, in his Annotations for the sixteenth of February, says most clearly to be in error. Tamayo Salazar exclaims against this greater error and asks from whom the Protonotary received this information. He responds in his Notes that he received it from the Greeks, in whose Menaea St. Onesimus is said to have set out for Spain with St. Polyxena. In those Menaea for the fifteenth of February, this eulogy is given: "Onesimus was a servant of Philemon, a Roman man, to whom the holy Apostle Paul writes; by whom he was instructed in the faith and whom he served. After Paul's death he was captured and brought before Tertyllus, Governor of the province, and by him relegated to Puteoli. There Tertyllus, coming upon Onesimus persisting in the faith of Christ, first ordered him to be cruelly beaten with rods, then, having broken his legs, sent him from this mortal life to the eternal one." In these words there is a particular error, since Philemon is called "a Roman man" (aner Romaios), whereas in the same Menaea for the nineteenth of February and the twenty-second of November he is said to have lived and died for the faith of Christ "at Colossae, which is a city of Phrygia." But Tamayo continues: "The Acts of this Onesimus were written by Metaphrastes, from whom Surius drew, and his compiler Grasius, but drinking in the error of Galesinius, confuses two men named Onesimus." But I come to the error noted by them, of which the author is not Galesinius nor the writer of the Menaea, but Metaphrastes, or whoever compiled those Acts, which Gentianus Hervetus translated into Latin, and which Lipomanus, Surius, and others published. In these Acts, chapter 7, according to Surius's arrangement, the following is read: "When Onesimus had come to Puteoli with Apitio, his stalwart fellow soldier in the true worship of God, he did not cease to preach the life-giving grace to those who came," etc. And then in chapter 8 his martyrdom is related.
[15] Ferrarius objects the following regarding the fifteenth of this month: "He who suffered at Puteoli is not the disciple of the Apostle Paul, but is far different from him, as the Acts of each demonstrate." But no other Acts of St. Onesimus are produced besides those transmitted in the epistles of Sts. Paul and Ignatius and the Martyrologies cited above, from which the Acts in Lipomanus and Surius completely diverge. St. Onesimus the Martyr of Puteoli is venerated on the thirty-first of July, where Ferrarius again notes that the Acts of Onesimus the disciple of St. Paul the Apostle, crowned at Rome on the sixteenth of February, are confused with the Acts of the one slain at Puteoli. The Acts of this Onesimus are contained in the Life of Sts. Alphius, Philadelphus, and Cyrinus, brothers and Martyrs, whom Onesimus their Teacher instructed in the Christian faith. In the Ecclesiastical Office of these saints, approved by Pope Paul V and able to be read throughout the entire kingdom of Sicily on the tenth of May, in the Lessons of the Second Nocturn from Metaphrastes, the Codex of Grottaferrata, and the Menologion, the following is recited: "Alphius, Philadelphus, and Cyrinus, noble Basques, sons of St. Benedicta the Martyr and the blessed Vitalis, during the persecution of the Emperor Decius, were arrested on account of the religion of Jesus Christ together with Onesimus their Teacher, Erasmus their nephew by a sister, and thirteen fellow students. When they most steadfastly confessed Christ before the Judge, by his order they were hung by their hair for an entire day, yet could by no means be moved from their holy resolve. Thence they were brought in bonds to Rome before Decius, who, being about to set out against the Persians, committed them to Licinius Valerianus ... Afterward they were brought to Puteoli and presented to the Prefect Diomedes, under whom Onesimus indeed and the other thirteen were crowned with martyrdom, while the holy brothers had their mouths battered with stones; then by Valerian's order they were transferred to Tertullus, Governor of Sicily." The Lessons recited in the Ecclesiastical Office in the city of Puteoli on the thirty-first of July concerning Sts. Onesimus, Erasmus, and their companion Martyrs, approved by Paul V and printed at Rome in the year 1612, agree with these. The same three brothers are said in the Great Menaea to have been "nurtured in all piety and instructed in the sacred Scriptures by a certain Onesimus, a holy man who preached Christ." But they are said to have been sent to Rome before Licinius, handed over by him to Valerian, then dispatched to Puteoli before Diomedes, who arranged for them to be led before Tertyllus (in Greek, pros Tertulon), Governor of Sicily. The Latin Acts of these Martyrs, printed at Palermo in rough type in the year 1522, call him the Emperor Licinius, with no mention made of Decius, and assert that St. Onesimus and the others were killed at Puteoli: "Then Diomedes, angered and driven by fury," says the author, "ordered St. Onesimus to be stretched out on his back and his belly to be pressed by executioners with a very large stone; and so the Saint delivered up his spirit to God." In the Lessons of the Church of Puteoli, it is said that the Prefect, inflamed, ordered Onesimus to be crushed by a huge stone. But the Acts in Surius for this day have the following concerning St. Onesimus: "When his entire body had been torn apart by torments, and Tertullus saw him lying on his back, he ordered his shins and thighs to be broken; and so the blessed Onesimus received from God the crown of incorruption." These accounts nearly coincide, except for Tertullus, whom the Acts of the other Martyrs call Tertyllus, under whom Alphius, Philadelphus, and Cyrinus, disciples of that Onesimus, suffered in Sicily — so that in a confused matter the judge of the disciples could easily have been ascribed to the Teacher. Having weighed these matters, the passion of St. Onesimus found in Lipomanus and Surius, attributed to the disciple of St. Paul, appears far more certainly to belong to St. Onesimus the Teacher of Sts. Alphius, Philadelphus, and Cyrinus; and therefore we judge that passion should be omitted in this place, in which there is no mention of the Episcopate of Ephesus, but only certain passages from the epistle of Paul to Philemon have been interspersed, with a preface appended on the occasion thereof, to the effect that by the grace of God even latecomers are stirred up.
[16] Finally, that narration concludes with this account of the burial: "A certain woman, who was of the Emperor's family, having constructed a casket of silver, placed in it the relics of the Martyr, from her devotion to the Saint procuring for herself the reward of eternal blessings." Julian Petrus in the Adversaria, chapter 75, applies this to Onesimus the disciple of St. Paul in these words: "Matidia Augusta, sister of the Emperor Caesar Trajan, a secret disciple of St. Clement, received the body of St. Onesimus, slain by the Prefect Tertullus at Rome, and enclosed it in a silver casket." Thus that author, on whose sole authority little trust is to be placed. Matidia Augusta was the granddaughter of Trajan through his sister Marciana, and the mother of Matidia the younger and Julia Sabina Augusta, wife of the Emperor Hadrian. Johannes Tristanus published a coin of the elder Matidia in volume 1, page 446, and one of Sabina on page 531, with an appended historical commentary that is quite learned and elegant. There also lived under Trajan Cornutus Tertullus, frequently mentioned in the epistles of Gaius Pliny, who was appointed Consul with him as suffect for two months in the year 101, when Trajan held the consulship for the fourth time together with Articuleius Paetus. But we do not immediately assent that the said Matidia, or any other aunt of hers, was a secret disciple of St. Clement and obtained the body of St. Onesimus, or that the said Tertullus or any other was Prefect of Rome under whom St. Onesimus was killed.
[17] A very brief Life of St. Onesimus exists in the Utrecht manuscript codex of St. Salvator, drawn from the Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle and of St. Ignatius of Antioch and from the Martyrologies; we have derived each particular from its own sources. Similar accounts are found in the Speculum Historiale of Vincent, book 9, chapter 49, in the Catalogue of Equilinus, book 3, chapter 130, and in various other works.
[18] In a manuscript Account of the Saints resting at Soissons in Gaul, which is now in the possession of Her Most Serene Majesty Queen Christina of Sweden, marked with the number 1466, the following is narrated concerning the relics of St. Onesimus in Lesson 11: "The throng of faithful present embraces St. Onesimus as their Father from ancient times, venerates him as their founder, and rejoices that their defender is present." We believe that our St. Onesimus is meant here. We shall publish that Account on the second of June together with the Acts of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter. In the Greek Menologion on the Kalends of December, the commemoration of Sts. Anthony the Younger and Onesimus, Archbishop of Ephesus, is recorded.