Paphnutius the Ascetic

Venerable Paphnutius the Ascetic was an Egyptian hermit of the fourth century, born in 305 and dead after 395. He is known above all for his accounts of the lives of many hermits of the Egyptian desert, such as Saint Onuphrius. He is commemorated on 15 February and on 25 September in the Orthodox Church in America, and the Copts commemorate him on 15 Meshir.

He was a disciple of Saint Macarius the Great, an ascetic in the Egyptian desert. Cassian visited him in 395, when Paphnutius was ninety.

Another source, the Serbian synaxarion, calls him Paphnutius Cephalas and says that he lived in the time of Saint Anthony the Great, that for eighty years he wore the same cassock, and that Anthony esteemed him highly and told everyone that he was a true ascetic, who knows how to heal and save souls. The Serbian source commemorates him on 25 February by the old calendar, which is 10 March by the new. We cannot say whether it is the same man.

He is also the subject of the play Paphnutius by the Benedictine nun Hrotsvit of Saxony, in which he converts the courtesan Thaïs to Christianity.