Onufrius Magnus: the hermit who bore the sun in his soul Imagine a man who spent six decades without seeing another human face. Who fed on dates found among the sands and drank water from a cliff he pierced with prayer. Who wore only his hair and a long white beard instead of clothes, and the scorching sand of the Egyptian desert instead of a bed. Such was Onufrius Magnus — one of the most extraordinary and ungraspable saints of the early Church. We commemorate his memory on June 25 (new style), and behind this date lies a whole story about how a person can be alone but not feel loneliness, how he can be naked but not feel shame, and how he can live in the desert but carry paradise in his heart. The fourth century: a time when the desert became home to thousands To understand the greatness of Onufrius, one must recall what was happening in Egypt in the fourth century. This was a time when Christianity, having just emerged from the catacombs, had not yet become the state religion but already attracted thousands of people. Many of them, inspired by the words of John the Baptist and the example of the apostles, went into the desert to dedicate themselves to God in complete silence and solitude. Thus was born monasticism — initially as an individual feat, and then as an organized community. But there were also those who chose the path of an anchorite — a complete recluse who not only lived far from people but also avoided even meeting them. Onufrius was one of such anchorites. He left no written works, founded no monasteries, nor governed communities. His only "school" was the desert, and his only "student" was the hermit Paphnutius, who accidentally met him a few days before his death. It was Paphnutius who told the world the story of the great elder who spent 60 years in the sands, never seeing a human face. This story, recorded in his biography, became one of the most vivid testimonies of the spiritual power of early monasticism. The encounter that changed Paph ... Read more