Onesiphorus

(bringing profit) (2 Tim. 1:16)—a leading Christian who lived at Ephesus and rendered many important services to the Apostle Paul. He was one of the Seventy Apostles and a disciple of Paul. When the apostle was imprisoned at Rome, Onesiphorus came there and again ministered diligently to him. “The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus,” writes Paul, “for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain.... The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day” (2 Tim. 1:16, 18).

According to one tradition he was bishop of Colophon near Ephesus; according to another, bishop of Caesarea, though it is not said whether this was Caesarea Philippi, Caesarea of Palestine, or Caesarea in Cappadocia. He suffered martyrdom at Parium on the Hellespont. His memory is kept on January 4, September 7, and December 8.