One of the Seventy. He was a slave to Philemon, a rich man from Colossae in Phrygia. He sinned against him and then fled to Rome, where he heard the Gospel from the Apostle Paul and was baptized. Since the Apostle Paul had previously converted Philemon to Christianity, he sent him a famous epistle in which he reconciled master and slave. Philemon then freed Onesimus. Later, after the death of the Apostle Timothy, Onesimus became bishop of Ephesus. During Trajan's persecution of Christians, as an old man, he was taken to Rome, where he appeared before the judge Tertullus, thrown into prison, and finally beheaded. His body was taken by a rich woman, placed in a silver coffin, and buried honorably. Saint Onesimus suffered for the Lord Jesus Christ in the year 109.

Venerable Eusebius.