Apostle
Apostle Onesimus
I век, † ок. 109
Also known as: Онисим Византийский
Apostle Onesimus of the Seventy — a runaway slave of the Christian Philemon of Colossae, on whose behalf Apostle Paul wrote his short Epistle to Philemon; he later became Bishop of Ephesus, successor to Apostle Timothy; he was martyred in Rome.
Apostle Onesimus of the Seventy was a slave of the Christian Philemon, who lived in Colossae. Having wronged his master, he fled to Rome, where, finding himself in prison, he met Apostle Paul and received baptism from him. Apostle Paul sent Onesimus back to Philemon with a personal letter — the Epistle to Philemon — asking him to forgive the runaway and receive him as a brother in Christ. Onesimus became bishop in Ephesus (Asia Minor) after the death of Apostle Timothy; the Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-Bearer, in his epistle to the Antiochians, calls him "the shepherd of Ephesus." His activity in spreading Christianity was noted by the Roman authorities: he was seized and brought to Rome, where, after cruel torture (his shins and other bones were crushed), he was beheaded around the year 109. His memory is kept on February 15/28, as well as January 4/17 in the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles.
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