Onesimus: Useful, a slave who, after robbing his master Philemon (q.v.) at
Colosse, fled to Rome, where he was converted by the apostle Paul,
who sent him back to his master with the epistle which bears his
name. In it he beseeches Philemon to receive his slave as a "faithful
and beloved brother." Paul offers to pay to Philemon anything his
slave had taken, and to bear the wrong he had done him. He was
accompanied on his return by Tychicus, the bearer of the Epistle to
the Colossians
(Philemon 1:16,18) The story of this fugitive Colossian
slave is a remarkable evidence of the freedom of access to the
prisoner which was granted to all, and "a beautiful illustration both
of the character of St. Paul and the transfiguring power and
righteous principles of the gospel."
