About the Holy Disciple Onysiphoros

Commemorated on September 7

About the Holy Disciple Onysiphoros the holy Apostle Paul (+ 67, Comm. 29 June) gives witness: "God grant mercy to the house of Onysiphoros for that repeatedly he hath given me rest and was not ashamed of my bonds, but being at Rome, with great diligence he searched after and did find me. May the Lord grant him to find the mercy of the Lord on that day; and how much he did serve me at Ephesus, thou well knowest" (2 Tim. 1: 16-18). Saint Onysiphoros was bishop at Colophon (Asia Minor), and later – at Corinth. He died a martyr in the city of Parium (not far from Ephesus) at the shores of the Hellespont, whither he had set out to proclaim the faith in Christ amongst the local pagans. Here the holy disciple Onysiphoros was arrested and brought to an idolous pagan-temple. For his refusal to burn incense to the pagan gods, the disciple Onysiphoros, together with his servant Porphyrios, was tied to wild horses and dragged along the ground. In the Roman Martyrology the day of death of Saint Onysiphoros is reckoned as 16 September. The Orthodox Church honours his memory together with the holy disciple Evodus on 7 September, and likewise on 4 January in the Assemblage (Sobor) of the holy 70 Disciples.