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From: (Lofichick)
Subject: Re: "D'Onofrio" family history, any help?
Date: 04 Jan 2002 03:12:39 GMT
References: <20011231144542.10800.00002623@mb-fy.aol.com>

I want to thank you for taking the time to research my family name. It was a
kind thing to do and my family would like to extend it's thanks to you. It was
very much appreciated.

Peace and Love to you and yours,

The Donofrios of Ozone Park, New York.


>ubject: Re: "D'Onofrio" family history, any help?
>From: (RAMBLER32)
>Date: 12/31/01 2:45 PM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <>
>
><< One is that the name goes back to the
>sannite tribes and means "son of the goddess diana". I've also heard that
>the
>name comes from St. Onofrio, a hermit. Any help would be appreciated. >>
>
>
>I would vote for the origin of St. Onofrio as the more probable. Surname
>origins are only theories.
>
>Here is some background on St. Onofrio from various sources. Onofrio is the
>Italian for the Latin Onuphrius (English Humphrey). Onofrio was the patron
>saint of weavers. I would also determine churches and towns were he is the
>patron. Perhaps there is a link there. The fact that devotion started about
>the
>time of the crusades is another aspect to investigate. How was the devotion
>carried to your region (usually a noble family).
>
>ONUPHRIUS (HUMPHREY), St. Roman Martyr June 12
>d. c. 400. An Eqyptian who lived as a hermit for seventy years in the desert
>of
>the Thebais, in Upper Egypt. He was a very popular saint in the Middle Ages,
>both in the East and in the West. He is the patron saint of weavers, probably
>because "he was dressed only in his own abundant hair and a loin-cloth of
>leaves".
>--from "The Book of Saints" the Benedictines
>
>ONUPHRIUS, ST.
>According to a certain abbot who met him St. Onuphrious was a solitary in the
>Egyptian desert for seventy years: he dressed only in his own abundant hair
>and
>a loin-cloth of leaves. d. c. 400 (?). June 12
>---from "A Dictionary of Saints" Attwater, Donald
>
>ONUPHRIUS (d. c. 400)
>While on a visit to the hermits of Thebaid in Egypt to find out if the
>eremetical life was for him, Abbot Pafhnutius met Onuphrius, who told him he
>had been a monk in a monastery but had left to follow the eremitical life,
>which he had done for seventy years. During the night the abbot stayed with
>the
>hermit; the next morning, after food had miraculously appeared the previous
>evening, Onuphrius told him he, Onuphrius, was to die and that Paphnutius
>had
>been sent by the Lord to bury him. Onuphrius did die, Paphnutius buried him
>in
>a hole in the mountainside, and the site immediately disappeared, as if to
>tell
>the abbot that he was not to remain there. The story was put into writing by
>one of his monks and was already popular in the sixth century. June 12.
>---John L. Delaney
>
>ONOFRIO, SANTO
>Eremita della Tebaide d'Egitto, m. verso la fine del sec. IV o al principio
>del
>V (la data 375 non ha fondamento).
>
>La sua festa nella chiesa latina e' celebrata il 12 giugno e in quella
>orientale il 10 giugno. L'unica fonte cui si puo' attingere e' la biografia
>lasciataci da Pafnunzio, passata nei Sinassari. Le circostanze che
>accompagnano
>la vita di Onofrio sono in gran parte favolose. Entrato nel monastero di
>Ermopoli e udita la vita del profeta Elia e di S. Giovanni Battista, si
>sarebbe
>entusiasmato per la vita eremitica e, ritiratosi nel deserto, vi sarebbe
>vissuto 60 anni senza vedere faccia di uomo, se non Pafnuzio, il quale lo
>assiste' in morte. Il suo culto fu portato in Italia (Sant'Onofrio al
>Gianicolo, in Roma), Francia, Germania e Spagna al tempo delle Crociate.
>L'arte, ispirandosi all descrizione lasciataci da Pafnuzio, lo rappresenta
>sia
>nell'atto di ricevere la S. Comunione per mano di un angelo, sia in orribili
>forme, irsuto, vestito di erbe selvagge, ecc.
>BIBL>:
>PL 73, 211-20;
>gli Acta SS. Junii, III, Parigi-Roma 1867, pp 16-30 contengono la vita di
>Onofrio lasciataci da Pafnuzio;
>Synax. Constantinopol., col 745 sg;
>Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca 191;
>W.E. Crum, Discours de Pisenthius su St. Onuphre, in Rev. de l"Orient
>chretien,
>10 (1915-17), pp 38-67;
>P. Cheneau, Les Saints d'Egypte, II, Gerusolemme 1923, pp 123-30;
>K. Kunstle, Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst, II, Friburgo in Br. 1928, pp
>479 sq.
>Martiniano Roncaglia
>--from Enciclopedia Cattolica circa 1954
>
>ONOFRIO, SAINT (translation from above)
>Hermit of Thebes in Egypt, died around the end of the 4th century or the
>beginning of the 5th century (the date 275 has no foundation).
>
>His feast in the Latin church is celebrated on June 12 and in the Eastern
>church on June 10. The only source that can be relied on is the biography
>left
>by St. Pafnunzio, handed down by the monks of the Sinai. The circumstance
>accompanying the life of Onofrio are for the most part imaginary. He entered
>the monastery of Ermopolis and hearing about the life of the prophet Elias
>and
>St. John the Baptist, became enthusiastic to became a hermit, retreating into
>the desert where for 60 years he never saw the face of any man except for
>Pafnunzio, who assisted him in dying. The devotion to this saint was brought
>to
>Italy (Sant' Onofrio in the Janiculum of Rome), France, Germany, Spain at the
>time of the Crusades. The art, inspired by the description left by St.
>Pafnunzio, represents him either in the act of receiving communion from the
>hand of an angel or in a the terrifying form of a hairy man clothed in wild
>plants, etc.
>--from Enciclopedia Cattolica circa 1954
>
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• Re: "D'Onofrio" family history, any help? by (Lofichick)