Onesimus
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(profitable) (Philem. 10)—a Phrygian from the city of Colossae, a slave of Philemon, who fled from his master and was converted by the holy Apostle Paul in Rome to faith in Christ. In the Epistle to the Colossians Paul calls him a faithful and beloved brother (Col. 4:9). According to tradition, Onesimus later became bishop of Ephesus after Timothy and suffered martyrdom at Rome in the reign of Trajan. St. Ignatius the God-bearer mentions Onesimus in his Epistle to the Ephesians. His memory is kept on February 15.