The Differences in the Feast Day of St. Onnohprius the Great

Abstract

The article investigates the differences in the feast day of a famous Egyptian hermit St. Onnophrius the Great (the 4th century). In Christian traditions a few dates of St. Onnophrius’ celebration are known, the most common ones are three: 10, 11 and 12 June after the Julian calendar. These dates, which are close to each other, cannot point out some diff erent and independent church traditions in veneration of the saint, more likely they conjecture an error or an intentional slight transference of his feast day in some Christian Churches. Date June 10 corresponds to Paone 16 after the Coptic calendar and it is a day of remembrance of St. Onnophrius in the Coptic Church. The reasons for this discrepancy have not been studied to the present day. The author through his analysis of unpublished manuscripts has established the origin of the date June 11, as well as he has suggested the causes of the rise of the date June 12. All other known days of St. Onnohprius’ commemoration (6, 8, 9, 13 and 17 June) can be considered like «marginal» ones and their origins require additional research based on other sources.

Keywords

• St. Onnophrius the Great
• Church calendar
• Byzantine hagiography
• Coptic Church
• Athos
• Byzantine monasticism
• Medieval religiosity.