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A whole community that stayed faithful to Christ when it cost everything.

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September 6 · Martyrs

Sts. Onesiphorus and…

Sts. Onesiphorus and Porphyry

A whole community that stayed faithful to Christ when it cost everything.

Traditional feast

September 6
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Martyrs

Early life

Selected sentences from the original account, unaltered.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 152 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

The Greek Menaea says that Onesiphorus was a native of Iconium, and dwelt there.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Be a peacemaker. Making peace is part of this story.

Share your faith, in words and by example. Preaching and conversion are central here.

Learn from the kind of life it was. A whole community that stayed faithful to Christ when it cost everything.

Read more

The full original · 152 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: The Martyrology of Jerome, Bede, Usuardus, Hrabanus, Wandelbcrt. The " Martyrologium parvum,'’ S. Onesiphorus alone, as disciple of S. Paul, not as martyr. By Mclanus, Onesiphorus alone on Sept. 6, and Onesiphorus and Porphyry as Martyrs on Nov. 9. In the Greek Menolcgies Onesiphorus and Porphyry on July 15, or July 16. Also the Coptic Martyrologies, and again on Nov. 8 and 9. Onesiphorus as one of the lxx. disciples of Christ on April 29, along with Euodias. Again on Dec. 7, along with six others, disciples of S. Paul, as one of the lxx. and Bishop of Cheronsea. In the Menology of Basil on Dec. 8, and in some editions of the Mensea on Dec. 8, as Bishop of Csesarea. Again on Sept. 7, along with Euodias, as Bishop of Cephalonia. It is evident, therefore, that several of the same name have been confounded together. The modern Roman Martyrology adopts the version in the Mensea of his martyrdom with Porphyry.] NESIPHORUS is named twice in the second epistle of S. Paul to S. Timothy (i. 16-18, iv. 19). In the former passage S. Paul mentions him in terms of grateful love, as having a noble courage and generosity in his behalf, amid his trials as a prisoner at Rome when others from whom he had expected better things had deserted him; in the latter passage he singles out “ the household of Onesiphorus " as worthy of a special greeting. It has been thought from this and from the manner in which Onesiphorus is spoken of in the first passage with the prayer that “ the Lord may remember him in that day,,; that Onesiphorus was then dead, and that S. Paul wrote mentioning the good deeds of his departed friend in a letter which contained a message to his household. And this seems most probable. If so, the Onesiphorus commemorated by the Greeks on April 29 is the disciple of S. Paul, and the others of the same name are various bishops and martyrs of various dates.

According to the “ Martyrology of Florus ” he was sent by S. Paul to Samaria, where he preached and died in peace, a.d. 74; a bit of pure guess. Peter de Natalibus says that after the martyrdom of S. Paul he remained in Rome, and there died in peace. Another guess stated as a fact. The Greek Menaea says that Onesiphorus was a native of Iconium, and dwelt there. The Onesiphorus mentioned by S. Paul certainly dwelt with his household at Ephesus. He went to Paros, in the Hellespont, and there was captured, along with his servant Porphyry, and both were put to death, Onesiphorus by being tied to the tails of wild horses. One Onesiphorus commemorated by the Greeks was Bishop of Chaeronea, another Bishop of Cephalonia. These were evidently distinct from Onesiphorus the disciple of S. Paul, and from the martyr of Paros.

sept. 6.] Sanctianus, Augustinus, Bcata. 89

Feast days

Feast: September 6

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
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One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from Sts. Onesiphorus and…'s story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on September 6
B

Beata

September 6 · Feast
D

Sts. Donatian and Others

September 6 · Feast
C

St. Cagnoald of Laon

September 6 · Bishop
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.