Saint Onesimus
![[Saint Onesimus]](sainto01.jpg "jpg illustration of Saint Onesimus returning to Philem,on, the letter from Saint Paul the Apostle in his hand; taken from 'Pictorial Lives of the Saints', 1892, artist unknown; please do not write to ask about the image")
- Memorial
- 16 February
- Profile
- Slave of the Colossian Christians Saint Philemon and Saint Apphia.
Committed a theft and fled from punishment to Rome where he hid with Saint Paul.
Paul converted him, then sent him home carrying the canonical Letter to Philemon.
He was freed.
- Died
- c.90
- Canonized
- Pre-Congregation
- Name Meaning
- helpful; profitable
- Additional Information
-
Catholic Encyclopedia: Letter to Philemon
Catholic Online
Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson
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- Readings
- Therefore, although I have the full right in Christ to order you to do what is proper, I rather urge you out of love, being as I am, Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus.
I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment, who was once useless to you but is now useful to both you and me.
I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.
I should have liked to retain him for myself so that he might serve me on your behalf in my imprisonment for the gospel, but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.
Philemon 1:8-14