Today June 12

Today is the feast of St. Onuphrius, Desert Father, died circa 400 AD. We don't have any great aphorisms by him (as we do most of the Desert Fathers), but we do have his story. St. Paphnutius found him when he was wandering in the desert -- an aged man covered with hair and wearing shorts made of leaves tied together. He called out to Paphnutius that he was indeed a man and a servant of God. He had lived as a solitary for 70 years and suffered extremes of temperature, the deprivation of hunger and thirst, and violent temptations as well. But he was a man of prayer, in love with God, and they spent the evening praying together in his little cave by the date palm. In the morning, Paphnutius could see that Onuphrius was near death, but the latter said, "Fear not, brother, for the Lord in His infinite mercy has sent you here to bury me." And so he did, just before the cave collapsed and the palm-tree withered, seemingly to prevent Paphnutius from engaging his secret thoughts to take over the hermitage when Onuphrius was gone.