ON ST. ONESIMA, VIRGIN.
Commentary.
Onesima, Virgin (St.)
Author G. H.
We celebrated Onesimus, Bishop of the Ephesians and Martyr, praised by the Apostle Paul, on the 16th of February; in treating of whose Life we also dealt with another Onesimus, Martyr at Leontini in Sicily, who is venerated on the 31st of July. Different from these is St. Onesimus, Bishop of Soissons in Gaul, whose sacred relics are preserved at Douai in Belgium in the church of St. Amatus, and the 13th of May is dedicated to their veneration. Indeed that name has also been transferred to the female sex, and has been made illustrious by a holy Virgin. In the ancient manuscript Martyrology preserved at Cologne among the Carmelite Fathers, among the select Saints, of whom few are recorded on individual days, the following is read on the 27th of February: On this day, of St. Onesima, Virgin. The Martyrology printed at Cologne in the year 1490 has the following: On this day, of Blessed Onosima, Virgin. The same is found in the Martyrology printed together with the Doctrinale of Clerics in the same year. Hermann Greven in the supplement to Usuard printed in 1515 and 1521 reports only this: Of Onesima, Virgin. Maurolycus, Abbot of Messina in Sicily, and Felicius record on the 28th of February Onesima and Ruffina, Virgins. Ruffina is venerated separately in other Martyrologies on the 28th of February. This is what we have so far found concerning the ancient veneration of St. Onesima. However, at what time or in what place she lived, we have not yet read.