ST. ONESIMUS THE SLAVE, APOSTLE AND BISHOP OF EPHESUS (FEB 15TH OR MARCH 1ST)

St. Onesimus in a Contemporary Greek Icon

Edited by Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

In the days of the Holy Apostles, when the Gospel of Christ was spreading across the Roman world, one of its most remarkable testimonies was found not in the courts of kings but in the reconciliation of master and slave. Onesimus, once bound in servitude to Philemon of Colossae, was set free by a greater Master, whose service alone is perfect liberty. 

The Apostle Paul, in his bonds at Rome, encountered Onesimus, a runaway slave, whose flight from Philemon had led him to an encounter with divine providence. Hearing the Gospel from St. Paul’s lips, Onesimus was baptized into the household of faith, becoming not merely a servant of men but a son of God and an heir of the kingdom of Christ. Yet, Christian liberty is no license for rebellion, nor does the Gospel overthrow the natural orders of life by worldly revolution. Rather, it transforms them from within, for “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). 

Moved by fatherly love, St. Paul sent Onesimus back to Philemon, not as a returned fugitive to be punished, but as a brother beloved, urging Philemon to receive him as he would receive Paul himself. The Apostle’s letter to Philemon stands as one of the most tender appeals in Holy Scripture, for it reveals that in Christ, the distinctions of slave and free are rendered secondary to the higher reality of spiritual kinship. Philemon, a Christian man of great faith, was moved by the love of Christ to grant Onesimus his freedom, not under compulsion, but willingly, that the bond of servitude might be transfigured into the bond of charity. 

This transformation of society through the Gospel, not by force but by the renewal of the mind (Romans 12:2), was the leaven by which the Church began the work of liberating the oppressed. Slavery, once a universal institution of fallen man, was undone not by rebellion but by the slow and sure working of divine grace in the hearts of men, until at last, the nations, long blind to the full dignity of the human person, came to recognize that all men are made in the image of God and are equal in value and dignity in His sight. The liberty of the Christian conscience led in time to the abolition of servitude, to the honor of labor, and to the universal suffrage of free men and women alike, for “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). While differing in God-given function - Husband and Wife, Father and Mother, Brother and Sister - never to be confused of undermined, we all are equal expressions of God’s delight and joy, and His design as the Creator is to be received, protected, and obeyed. 

Freed in body and soul, St. Onesimus became a faithful minister of the Gospel, and in time, he was consecrated Bishop of Ephesus by the very Apostles themselves. As a shepherd of Christ’s flock, he upheld the faith, strengthened the brethren, and preserved the sacred deposit of truth, as witnessed in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch. In his old age, under the persecution of the Emperor Trajan, he bore witness once more to the freedom of a Christian, whose conscience is bound only to God. Arrested and brought to Rome, he was examined by the judge Tertulus and, refusing to deny his Lord, was imprisoned and beheaded. Thus, he received the martyr’s crown, his blood sealing the testimony of his life, that true freedom is found in Christ alone. 

A wealthy and pious woman recovered his holy relics and laid them in a silver coffin, granting honor to him whom the world despised. And so, Saint Onesimus, once a slave, now reigns with Christ, a bishop in the Church Triumphant, interceding for all who call upon his name before the Throne of our One True Master, Jesus Christ the Lord! 

COLLECT

O Lord God, who in thy divine providence didst lead thy servant Onesimus from bondage to the glorious liberty of the children of God, and didst make him a faithful bishop and martyr of thy Church: Grant that we, being delivered from the bondage of sin, may evermore serve thee in holiness and truth, and see in every man the image of thy divine majesty; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

St. Onesimus, pray for us! 

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