Saint Onesimus (Greek: Ὀνήσιμος Onēsimos, meaning “useful”; died c. 68 AD, according to Orthodox tradition), also called Onesimus of Byzantium and The Holy Apostle Onesimus in some Eastern Orthodox churches, was a slave to Philemon of Colossae, a man of Christian faith. He may also be the same Onesimus named by Ignatius of Antioch as Bishop in Ephesus which would put his death closer to 95A.D. . Regardless, Onesimus went from slave to brother to Bishop.
The name “Onesimus” appears in two New Testament epistles—in Colossians 4 and in Philemon. In Colossians 4:9 a person of this name is identified as a Christian accompanying Tychicus to visit the Christians in Colossae; nothing else is stated about him in this context. He may well be the freed Onesimus from the Epistle to Philemon.
The Epistle to Philemon was written by Paul the Apostle to the slave-master Philemon concerning a runaway slave called Onesimus. This slave found his way to the site of Paul’s imprisonment (most probably Rome or Caesarea) to escape punishment for a theft of which he was accused. After hearing the Gospel from Paul, Onesimus converted to Christianity. Paul, having earlier converted Philemon to Christianity, sought to reconcile the two by writing the letter to Philemon which today exists in the New Testament.). The letter reads (in part):
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Author: Wikipedia
Keywords: Onesimus, Philemon
Bible reference(s): Col 4:9, Phm 1:10-13, Phm 1:15-17
Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Onesimus,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
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