medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Onuphrius the Great (d. 4th cent., seemingly). We know about the Egyptian hermit Onuphrius (Onouphrios, Onnofrius, Eunufrius, Nofer, Nofrio, Onofre, Humphrey, etc.) from his Bios (BHG 1378, 1379, etc.) by a Paphnutius usually identified medievally with St. Paphnutius the Ascetic.
Paphnutius claims to have encountered Onophrius in the desert and to have heard from him a relation of his life prior to their meeting. This account, furnished in response to questions from Paphnutius, makes Onuphrius a monk from a very severe monastery near Egyptian Thebes who was moved to imitate the life of St. John the Baptist in the wilderness and who, enduring many temptations, had lived to old age as a solitary, covering his body only with his own hair plus a wrapping of leaves sewn together about his loins. An angel furnished him daily with modest food and with a measure of water; once a month a date palm at his hermitage vouchsafed a fruit which he would consume together with locally gathered herbs. Once a week he received the Eucharist from an angel. According to Onuphrius, such heavenly support was made available to all self-denying solitaries in the desert and the desire for human company was satisfied through the joy of celestial visions. In Paphnutius' presence an evening meal appeared miraculously before them. On the following day Paphnutius learned from Onuphrius that he had been divinely appointed to bury the saint, now on the point of death. Onuphrius had died, Paphnutius laid him to rest in a rocky cleft, and the hermitage and the palm tree both collapsed. Thus far the Bios.
Paphnutius' Bios of Onuphrius is clearly an exemplary tale of spiritual development and the abandonment of worldly concerns. Whether its subject ever had an actual existence and whether there had been oral tradition about him prior to Paphnutius are unknown. The Bios was translated into many tongues, with Onuphrius becoming a very popular saint in parts of the West as well as in the East. In time his legend acquired details transferred from St. Jerome's Vita of St. Paul the Hermit (Paul of Thebes), e.g. the arrival of two lions to dig the saint's grave. Herewith a few medieval images of St. Onuphrius the Great:
a) Onuphrius (at far left, followed by Sts. Thomas the Apostle and Basil the Great) as depicted in the eleventh-century frescoes of the Yılanlı Kilise (Church of the Serpent) at Göreme in Turkey's Nevşehir province:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3183/2415718490_e8ed566c40_b.jpg
http://romeonrome.com/files/2007/07/20.StOnofrio.jpg
b) Onuphrius as depicted in a worn eleventh-century fresco in the cathedral of St. Sophia in Kyiv (Kiev):
http://tinyurl.com/qg6avjz
c) Onuphrius (at far left) as depicted in a probably eleventh-century fresco in the Grotta dei Santi in Pignataro Maggiore (CE) near Calvi Risorta (CE) in northern Campania:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/14747125@N08/8402336041
Detail view (Onuphrius):
http://www.cattedrale-calvirisorta.com/imgrSanti/27.jpg
d) Onuphrius as depicted in the late twelfth-century mosaics of the basilica cattedrale di Santa Maria Nuova in Monreale:
http://tinyurl.com/3bfdomj
e) Onuphrius (at right; at left, St. Margaret of Antioch) as depicted in a late twelfth-century fresco (not long after ca. 1180) in the rupestrian chiesa di Santa Maria in Grotta in Rongolise, a _frazione_ of Sessa Aurunca (CE) in northern Campania (view greatly expandable):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/14747125@N08/7986394314
f) Onuphrius receiving communion from heaven as depicted in the late twelfth-century frescoes (1192; cleaned and restored, late 1960s and early 1970s) in the church of the Panagia tou Arakou at Lagoudera (Nicosia prefecture) in the Republic of Cyprus:
http://tinyurl.com/o37wwo4
g) Onuphrius (second from left) as depicted in a late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century fresco in the bema of the Palaia Enkleistra ('Old Hermitage') of the St. Neophytus monastery near Tala (Paphos prefecture) in the Republic of Cyprus:
http://tinyurl.com/7ncsx62
h) Onuphrius (at right) as depicted in the earlier thirteenth-century frescoes (1230s) in the narthex of the church of the Holy Ascension in the Mileševa monastery near Prijepolje (Zlatibor dist.) in Serbia:
http://www.srpskoblago.org/Archives/Mileseva/Details/w2-s1s2/large/l1-2.jpg
Detail view (Onuphrius):
http://www.srpskoblago.org/Archives/Mileseva/Details/w2-s1s2/large/l1-1-7.jpg
i) Onuphrius as depicted in a probably earlier thirteenth-century fresco in the abbey church of Santa Maria delle (or di) Cerrate in Squinzano (LE) in southern Apulia:
http://tinyurl.com/7h2qe7n
j) Onuphrius (at rear, lower left, next to St. Christopher of Lycia) as depicted in a later thirteenth-century fresco (ca. 1264) on the interior of the west wall of the oratorio di San Pellegrino in Bominaco, a locality of Caporciano (AQ) in Abruzzo (image greatly expandable):
http://tinyurl.com/ofl39ac
Detail view (Onuphrius):
http://tinyurl.com/q6bplod
k) Onuphrius as depicted in a later thirteenth-century fresco (1271) in the monastery church of St. Nicholas at Manastir (Prilep municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/orumrbh
l) Onuphrius as depicted by the Oropa Master in an earlier fourteenth-century vault fresco in the old basilica of the santuario di Oropa in Oropa, a _frazione_ of Biella:
http://www.stilearte.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/foto-2-onofrio.jpg
m) Onuphrius as depicted (lower right) in an earlier fourteenth-century set of miniatures from Thessaloniki for the Great Feasts (betw. 1322 and 1340; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Gr. th. f. 1, fol. 43r):
http://image.ox.ac.uk/images/bodleian/msgrthf1/43r.jpg
n) Onuphrius receiving communion from heaven as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (1330s) in the nave of the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/ybfj8gk
o) Onuphrius (second from left) as depicted by Puccio di Simone in a probably mid-fourteenth-century polyptych of the Madonna and saints (ca. 1346-1358) now in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence:
http://tinyurl.com/q3cp9ro
p) Onuphrius (scenes) as depicted by the Grupo de Iravals in a later fourteenth-century detached predella in the museum of the catedral basílica metropolitana de Barcelona (which latter prefers to call this object a frontal):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/monestirspuntcat/4888604966/
q) Onuphrius (at far left) as depicted by Giovanni Bonsi in his late fourteenth-century Polyptych of the Madonna, Christ Child, and Four Saints (1371) now in the Pinacoteca Vaticana:
http://images.zeno.org/Kunstwerke/I/big/77j066a.jpg
r) Onuphrius as depicted in a later fourteenth-century fresco (ca. 1372) in the church of St. Michael the Archangel in the Varoš monastery in Prilep in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/q3x3yn6
s) Onuphrius (at left; at right, St. Ephraem the Syrian) as depicted in the late fourteenth-century frescoes (1389; restored in 1971 and 1972) of the monastery church of St. Andrew at Matka in the Karpoš municipality (part of Skopje) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/qjcy7o5
t) Onuphrius as depicted in the late fourteenth-century frescoes (1390s) of the monastery church of St. Nicholas at Ramaća, a locality of Stragari (Šumadija dist.) in central Serbia:
http://www.monumentaserbica.com/mushushu/images/78.jpg
u) Onuphrius as depicted by the Master of the Beffi Triptych in an earlier fourteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1420-1440) now in the Museo Civico in Sulmona (AQ) in Abruzzo:
http://tinyurl.com/qeg9gev
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/q3594b4
v) Onuphrius as depicted (at far right) by Beato Angelico in his earlier fifteenth-century Compagnia di San Francesco Altarpiece (ca. 1429) in Florence's Museo Nazionale di San Marco:
http://www.wga.hu/art/a/angelico/12/01compag.jpg
w) Onuphrius receiving communion from heaven as depicted in a fifteenth-century fresco in the chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi:
https://casalvecchioedintorni.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/sany0508.jpg
x) Onuphrius as depicted in a fifteenth-century fresco in the baptistery adjoining the basilica di San Pietro at Agliate (MI) in Lombardy:
Ca. 1988-1990:
http://www.mondimedievali.net/edifici/lombardia/agliate13.jpg
More recently (after cleaning):
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/VljiWlGITk6RMaKO-pnMDQ
http://www.atlantedellarteitaliana.it/immagine/00003/1514OP2349.jpg
y) Onuphrius receiving communion from heaven as depicted by a fifteenth-century Umbrian master working in the upper church of the monastero (del Sacro Speco) di San Benedetto in Subiaco (RO) in Lazio:
http://tinyurl.com/omc24ge
z) Onuphrius as depicted in a fifteenth-century fresco in the rupestrian chiesa di Santa Croce ai Lagnoni in Andria (BT) in northern Apulia:
http://andriarte.it/SantaCroce/immagini/transettodx-SantOnofrio-CD.jpg
aa1) Onuphrius' earthly burial and his soul's ascent to Heaven as depicted in a fifteenth-century fresco in the lower church of the eremo di Sant'Onofrio in La Costa, a rural _frazione_ of Spoleto:
http://tinyurl.com/qjdt7xx
Detail views:
http://tinyurl.com/q2kbuw5
http://tinyurl.com/ndbsy7b
aa2-4) Onuphrius as depicted in other fifteenth-century images in the same church:
http://tinyurl.com/p9a7hz8 [receiving communion from heaven]
http://tinyurl.com/nkgec45
http://tinyurl.com/ntpz7g8
aa5) Onuphrius (at far left, with St. Jerome, the BVM, and Christ on the Cross) as depicted in a later fifteenth-century fresco in the upper church of the aforementioned eremo di Sant'Onofrio in La Costa:
http://tinyurl.com/pdagdb6
bb) Onuphrius receiving communion from heaven as depicted in a later fifteenth-century glass window in the Kapelle der Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft in the Evangelische Stadtkirche at Ravensburg (Land Baden-Württemberg):
http://tinyurl.com/orejmum
cc) Onuphrius receiving communion from heaven as depicted by the Master of the Darmstadt Passion in a later fifteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1460) in the Kunsthaus Zürich:
http://tinyurl.com/o49e7kg
dd) Onuphrius receiving communion from heaven as depicted in a hand-painted later fifteenth-century woodcut (ca. 1460-1470) from Augsburg, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York:
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/337952
ee) Onuphrius (at far right) as depicted in a later fifteenth-century fresco (1478) in the chiesa di Santa Brigida at Santa Brigida (BG) in Lombardy's Valle Brembana:
http://www.valbrembanaweb.com/santa-brigida/images/religione-affreschi-interni.jpg
Detail views:
http://www.centromusicaantica.it/images/292_S-ONOFRIO-7.jpg
http://www.duepassinelmistero.com/B-06.jpg
ff) Onuphrius as depicted in a panel from a late fifteenth-century glass window (1481) designed by Bartolomeo Caporali for the then newly commissioned cappella di Sant'Onofrio in the cathedral of Perugia and now in the Tesoro del Sacro Convento at Assisi:
http://tinyurl.com/75czs62
An expandable black-and-white composite view of the entire window:
http://tinyurl.com/nrksbxh
gg) Onuphrius (at lower left) as depicted by Luca Signorelli in his late fifteenth-century Sant'Onofrio Altarpiece (1484) created for the same chapel in Perugia's cathedral and now in the Museo Capitolare di San Lorenzo in Perugia:
http://tinyurl.com/m75v3u
hh) Onuphrius (at left) as depicted by Bartolomeo Montagna in his late fifteenth-century Madonna under a Pergola with St. John the Baptist and St. Onuphrius (1488-1489), a panel painting remounted on canvas and now in Vicenza's Pinacoteca Civica:
http://tinyurl.com/o45llb8
ii) Onuphrius as depicted by Carlo Crivelli in a detached predella panel from his late fifteenth-century Altarpiece of San Francesco in Fabriano (1493), this panel now in the Museo Nazionale di Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome:
http://tinyurl.com/q6dfsw6
jj) Onuphrius as portrayed in a late fifteenth- or very early sixteenth-century polychrome and gilt wooden statue by Giovanni Zabellana sold at auction in March 2007 by San Marco Casa d'Aste:
http://www.artvalue.com/image.aspx?PHOTO_ID=1514124
kk) Onuphrius as depicted by Albrecht Dürer in an early sixteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1505) now in the Kunsthalle Bremen:
http://tinyurl.com/qyuvaws
ll) Onuphrius (at left; at right, St. Mary of Egypt) as depicted in the early sixteenth-century Almugavar Hours (ca. 1510-1520; Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, ms. W. 420, fol. 254v):
http://thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/W420/data/W.420/sap/W420_000512_sap.jpg
mm) Onuphrius as depicted by Floriano Ferramola and workshop in an early sixteenth-century fresco (ca. 1513-1524) in the oratorio di Santa Maria in Solario in the former monastery of San Salvatore and Santa Giulia in Brescia:
http://www.michele-aquaron.com/admin/upload/Image1Brescia%20bis.jpg
nn) Onuphrius as portrayed by Damian Forment in an early sixteenth-century polychrome alabaster statue (ca. 1520) now in the Museo de Zaragoza:
http://tinyurl.com/pj6eb7c
http://tinyurl.com/qjvve32
Best,
John Dillon
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