Onuphrius

"My name is Onnophrius, and for sixty years I have lived in this solitary place and desert. I walk in the mountains like the wild beasts, and I live on the plants and trees, and I have not seen anyone I know."

"I rose and stretched out my hands and I prayed, and suddenly a man of light came to me, the one who had come to me the first time. And when he came, he stood over me and he strengthened me as he had done the first time. In short, seventeen days passed while I journeyed in this manner. Suddenly I looked in the distance. I saw a man coming who was completely fire, his hair spread out over his body like a leopard’s. Indeed, he was naked, and leaves from a plant covered his shameful parts. Now when he came close to me, I climbed up on a mountain ledge, thinking that he was a mountain man. Now when he came closer, he threw himself under the mountain ledge in the shade because he was exhausted and because of his hunger and thirst. Indeed, he was in grave danger of dying. He raised his eyes to the mountain ledge and called to me, saying, “Paphnutius, come down to me, man of God. I, too, am a man of the desert, like yourself. I live in this desert on account of God.”"