Venerable
Venerable Paphnutius the Ascetic
IV в.
Also known as: Пафнутий, ученик прп. Онуфрия Великого
Venerable Paphnutius the Ascetic — an Egyptian desert-dweller, identified by tradition with the disciple who visited St. Onuphrius the Great shortly before his death and later recorded his biography; no independent calendar commemoration date is confirmed by any authoritative source, distinct from Paphnutius of Jerusalem and Paphnutius of the Thebaid.
HONEST NOTE: the previously listed date "March 25" is not confirmed by any authoritative source and has been removed from this card — according to the Orthodox Encyclopedia (pravenc.ru), even the identity and independent calendar commemoration of this saint remain uncertain, unlike the two other saints of this name covered in the same batch of the database (Paphnutius of Jerusalem and Paphnutius the Confessor of the Thebaid), for whom separate reliable articles and precise dates were found.
According to tradition, Venerable Paphnutius the Ascetic was an Egyptian hermit-monk who went deep into the desert seeking a more solitary ascetic struggle and there encountered St. Onuphrius the Great shortly before his death. Having spent his last night with him in spiritual conversation and having witnessed his blessed repose, Paphnutius buried the elder and later recorded an account of his life and struggles, which became the principal source of information about St. Onuphrius the Great.
The reliability of identifying this author of the vita with a separately venerated saint named Paphnutius, as well as the exact date of his own commemoration, are not unambiguously confirmed by the sources.