ON ST. ONESIMUS THE WONDERWORKER.
From the Greek Synaxaria.
Under Diocletian.
CommentaryOnesimus the Wonderworker, among the Greeks (S.)
J. P.
Onesimus, of today, the Wonderworker, is read inscribed in the sacred tables in the printed Menaea, with their Index
manuscript; but without an elogium; which is fitted to him in the Ambrosian Menaea. Of the same, moreover, mention was made by the Menaeon of Chifflet, The memory of the Saint; verses, Maximus, Bishop of Cythera, and both codices of Turin. The Supplement to the printed Menaea, so many times named, thus sings: Ἐλαφρὸν ἦρα φορτίον σὸν ἡδέως Μεθ᾽ οὗ σὸς Ὀνήσιμος ἥκω σοι, Λόγε. Your light burden, Christ, I bore sweetly; Onesimus, yours, now come to you with it, O Word.
[2] There is a play on ὄνος, an ass, as if from ὄνημι, I help: whence Ὀνήσιμος here. the elogium. The Basilian thus praises the Saint: St. Onesimus was sprung from the city of Caesarea in Palestine, under the reign of Diocletian, the son of pious parents; who, as the report is, being baptized by an Angel, were forewarned of the conception of their son, and were taught his name. After therefore he had been born and educated in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, having withdrawn to one of the monasteries which are at Ephesus, in which dwelt eighty ascetics, he was made a monk; and he strove beyond the powers of human nature. But his parents, while they mourned his absence, were made blind. And when a persecution had arisen against the Christians, when all the monks fled, he too returned to his own house, as a stranger; where indeed he restored sight to his parents; but did not manifest himself to them; but, having written on paper the things pertaining to himself, and placed them on one of the windows, he sought Magnesia: where, having wrought many miracles, he migrated to God. Similar things are narrated in the Menaea of the Ambrosian library; with this added, that he was not only from Palestine, but also ἐκ κόμης (read κώμης) Καρίνης, from the village of Carines.