Philemon

The Holy Apostle Philemon, of the Seventy, was a wealthy Christian of Colossae in Asia Minor, to whom the Holy Apostle Paul addressed the Epistle to Philemon. According to tradition he was a martyr in the time of Nero, together with his wife Apphia and with Archippus. He is commemorated on 19 February and on 22 November.

Philemon in the New Testament

The Epistle to Philemon is one of Paul’s shortest letters, written around 60-61, from prison. It is addressed “to Philemon our beloved and fellow worker, and Apphia our sister, and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house”. Philemon was a rich man whose house was a meeting place of the believers, which is why Paul calls it “the church in your house”. In his house travelling Christians and especially preachers of the Gospel found lodging; Apphia, his wife, was famed for piety and hospitality. Philemon was, according to some, converted by Bishop Epaphras or by Paul himself, at Ephesus or in Colossae.

Paul asks Philemon to take back Onesimus, his servant, who had fled to Rome, was brought to Christ by Paul and returned to his master. The letter, full of fatherly love, asks him to receive him not as a slave but above a slave, as a beloved brother.

Tradition

The Menaion of 22 November speaks of Philemon as a holy apostle who, with Apphia, Archippus and Onesimus, was martyred at Colossae, in the first general persecution, in the time of the emperor Nero. In the list of the seventy apostles attributed to Dorotheus of Tyre, Philemon is called bishop of Gaza; by another tradition, the second bishop of Colossae. According to the story in the synaxaria, at a feast of the goddess Artemis the Christians of Colossae were gathered for prayer in Philemon’s house. The pagans, learning of it, rushed in, seized the leaders, Philemon, Archippus and Apphia, beat them with rods, then buried them to the waist in the ground and struck them with stones, killing Philemon and Apphia, and Archippus a little later. The Orthodox Church also commemorates him on 4 January, at the Synaxis of the Seventy; the Lutheran Church commemorates him on 15 February. In Ukraine the name Philemon, in the popular form Khalymon, is owed to him.