[6] Onuphrius was one of the Desert Fathers who made a great impression on Eastern spirituality in the third and fourth centuries, around the time that Christianity was emerging as the dominant faith of the Roman Empire.

At this time many Christians were inspired to go out into the desert and live in prayer in the harsh environment of extreme heat and cold, with little to eat and drink, surrounded by all sorts of dangerous animals and robbers.

"[6] Turning back, Paphnutius talked to the wild figure, who introduced himself as Onuphrius and explained that he had once been a monk at a large monastery in the Thebaid but who had now lived as a hermit for 70 years, enduring extreme thirst, hunger, and discomforts.

...The years of Onuphrius' youth were passed in a monastery that observed the rule of strict silence; a hind instructed him in Christian rites and liturgy.

The legend of Saint Onuphrius was depicted in Pisa's camposanto (monumental cemetery), and in Rome the church Sant'Onofrio was built in his honor on the Janiculan Hill in the fifteenth century.

[12] Antony, the archbishop of Novgorod, writing around 1200 AD, stated that Onuphrius' head was conserved in the church of Saint Acindinus (Akindinos), Constantinople.

It is said that the saint himself chose the place for it, appearing nearly four hundred years ago to fishermen and leaving them an icon of himself on the banks of the river Bug.

[7] The St. Onuphrius Monastery in Jerusalem is located at the far end of Gai Ben Hinnom, the Gehenna valley of hell, situated within the site of a Jewish cemetery from the Second Temple period.

His name appears very variously as Onuphrius, Onouphrius, Onofrius and in different languages as Onofre (Portuguese, Spanish), Onofrei (Romanian), Onofrio (Italian), etc.