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."
   

Onesimus, profitable; useful