Onesimus [SEP] canonization status
liturgy.
Onesimus is regarded as a saint by many Christian denominations. The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod commemorates him and Philemon on February 15.
Eastern Churches remember Onesimus on 15 February and 22 November.
The traditional Western commemoration of Onesimus is on 16 February. But in the 2004 edition of the "Roman Martyrology", Onesimus is listed under 15 February. There, he is described as "[a] runaway slave, whom the apostle Paul received to the faith of Christ while in prison, regarding him
on this work – the homily of Origen and the Anti-Marcion Preface – are silent about Onesimus' possible servile status, and traces the origins of this interpretation to John Chrysostom, who proposed it in his "Homiliae in epistolam ad Philemonem", during his ministry in Antioch, circa 386–398. In place of the traditional interpretation, Callahan suggests that Onesimus and Philemon are brothers both by blood and religion, but who have become estranged, and the intent of this letter was to reconcile the two men. Ben Witherington III