Saint Onuphrius

Onuphrius lived as a hermit in the desert of Upper Egypt in the fourth or fifth century. His story comes from the account attributed to Abba Paphnutius, a monk who traveled into the desert to learn from the hermits. After many days he met an old man clothed only in his long white hair and a covering of leaves. It was Onuphrius, who told him he had once lived in a monastery near Thebes and had spent some sixty years alone in the wilderness.

Onuphrius said that God had fed him with dates from a palm tree and water from a spring, and that an angel brought him the Eucharist. Paphnutius stayed with him that night, and the next day the hermit died peacefully. Paphnutius buried him in a cave in the rock and carried his story back to the monks.

In Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico and much of Latin America, San Onofre is a popular saint of the home. Many families keep his image and pray to him for steady work and for the daily bread of the household.

In Italy, Sicily and Spain he is patron of several towns, and in Rome the church of Sant'Onofrio on the Janiculum Hill bears his name.