PAPHNUTIUS

PAPHNUTIUS. A name belonging to six saints (q.v.) in the Orthodox calendar, four of them monks. Two of the most important were Egyptians, monks of the 4th c, and one a contemporary of Antony (q.v.). The latter lived the ascetic life in near nakedness in the desert for eighty years and the former is the father of Euphrosyne, an anchoress, and himself an anchorite. A third Paphnutius, also a 4th-c. ascetic, is commemorated as a martyr (q.v.) (September 25th).