History of saint menas - The miracle-maker
St. Menas is considered the most well know saint in the East and the West, due to the many miracles that are performed through his prayers for us. That is evident in the numerous little clay bottles on which his name and picture are engraved. These were discovered by the archeologists in diverse countries around the world, such as Heidleburg in Germany, Milan in Italy, Dalmata in Yugoslavia, Marceille in France, Dengela in Sudan, and Jerusalem. Visitors from these cities and others would buy these bottles which usually contain oil or water for blessing, and take them back to their relatives.
Saint Menas was born in Egypt in the year 285, in the city of Niceous which lies in the vicinity of Memphis. His parents were real ascetic christians, his father's name was Audexios and his mother's was Aufimia. On the feast of St. Mary, the mother who did not have any children was praying in front of the Icon of the Virgin with tears that God may give her a blessed son. A sound came to her ears saying "Amen",
and thus she called her son Mena.
His father, a ruler of one of the administrative divisions of Egypt, died when Menas was fourteen years old. At fifteen he joined the army, and was given a high rank because of his father's reputation and was appointed in Algeria. Three years later he left the army longing to devote his whole life for Christ. He headed towards the desert to live a different kind of life.
After he spent five years as a hermit, he saw the angels coronating the martyrs with glamorous crowns, in a revelation and longed to join them. While he was thinking about it, he heard a voice saying: "Blessed are you, Abba Menas, because you have been called for the pious life from your childhood. You shall be granted three immortal crowns; one because of your celibacy, the second because of your asceticism and the third because of your martyrdom".
Immediately he felt as if the earth under him was vanishing, and he was overwhelmed with great eagerness to be carried away to heavens. In a mood of valor he hurried to the ruler, declaring his Christian faith. His endless sufferings and the tortures that he went through, have attracted many of the pagans not only to christianity, but also to martyrdom.
THE SAINT'S BODY
The saint's assassins tried to burn his relics but they failed, so the believers loaded his body on a camel and headed towards the western desert. At a certain spot, the camel stopped and the people could not force it to continue its trip by any means. Right there, near a water well they buried him (that place is his present monasters at the end of Mariut lake not far from Alexandria).
THE DISCOVERY OF HIS BODY
It happened that while a shepherd was feeding his sheep in that area, a sick lamb fell on the ground. As it struggled to get on its feet again, its scab was cured. The story was spread quickly and the sick who came to this spot recovered from whatever illnesses thay had just by laying on the ground.
During that time, the daughter of King Zinon, the Christ lover, caught the itch. His advisors suggested that she should try that place, and she did. At night the Saint appeared to the girl and informed her that his body is buried in that place. The following morning, she bathed in the well and was healed. She related her vision about St. Menas to her servants and that he cured her.
ST. MENAS IN MARIUT
Immediately, King Zinon ordered the Saint's body to be dug out, and a church to be built there. Not only that, but he also ordered to build a large city to be named after the Saint. Sick people from all over the world, used to visit that city and were healed by the intercession of St. Menas, the miracle-maker.
Mrs. Bucher recorded that destruction started to take place in the city, and its inhabitants were degraded after the Arab conquest. During the period after Haroun
El-Rasheed, the Barberians attacked the city and burned a large portion of it. At the time of El-Mamoun he ordered to put the entire city down, and then he used its numerous marble pillars to build his palace and the mosques. It is only in the twentieth century that international missions began to search for the city and the church. The remainders of it, no doubt, demonstrates the glory of the Coptic past.
THE NEW CHURCH OF ST. MENAS
As soon as Pope Cyril the Sixth was coronated on St. Mark's Throne, he began to put the foundations of a great Monastery close to the remains of the old city. Thus in his blessed days God's will had permitted the old monastery of St. Menas to be resurrected and the Copts to visit it and to be blessed by the Saint. What is even more interesting is that the Pope has stated in his will that his body should not be buried in the new famous Cathedral in Cairo, but in the monasterv of his personal friend and intercessor St. mena the miracle-maker!!!
Plane of Sant Menas santuari's situation in Alexandria (Egipt).
Coptic Monastery of St. Menas - Mariut
The ruins of the church constructed by St. Athanasius 298-373. (Excaved by Kaufmann 1908).
Abu
An arabic word for a holy man or saint from any religion that is used mostly by archaeologists. Arabs of today use the word as a slang term to describe the head of a family or father of children.
Image of Christ and Abbot Menas extracted of a Coptic table
coming from Bawit, Egypt (Museum of Louvre).
Patron of Sentmenat and Vilablareix (Girona).(CATALONIA).
6th-7th century AD
Painted wood
E 11565
This work -one of the rare paintings on wood dating back to the 6th or 7th century- is the only Coptic icon kept in the Louvre. On the right, the bearded Christ is identified by a halo stamped with a Cross and by his name written in coptic: "The Saviour". He holds the book of the gospels and passes his arm around the shoulders of the "Abu" Menas, the father superior of the monastery of Bawit, as indicated on the inscription repeated twice near him. The holy man is represented as almost the equal of Christ. The grave air of the two personages, their emaciated faces with large ringed eyes, and their reserved attitude bear witness to the ascetic ideal of the monks of Egypt. The simplicity of the relationship of man with God finds an echo in the texts relating the life of the holy monks, used to marvellous encounters with the divine.
Eulogy ampulla of Saint Menna.
Coptic art, Egipte (6th century)
(Städtiche Galerie Liebighaus, Frankfurt).
Terracotta
E 24445
Some little terracotta flasks called eulogy ampullae are decorated with images of Saint Menas standing in prayer between two camels. Martyrised at Alexandria in the 3rd century, his body was transported by camels to the place of his burial in the western desert, where a large pilgrimage church was built. Often coming from afar, pilgrims flocked to his tomb, taking back with them these pilgrim flasks which were, consequently, found throughout the Mediterranean world. They were intended to receive the oil of the lamps or holy water (eulogy) of the sanctuary, and were kept
piously by the pilgrims.
Some links about St. Menas
Ivory Pyxis depicting the Martyrdom of Saint Menas
St. Menas at St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church
St. Menas - svetnik
University College Cork - The Military Martyrs - St. Menas
Abu-Menas Monastery
The catholic Encyclopedia
http://www.bluemountain.com/engy/orthodox/GO_nov11-1.html
St. George and St. Menas - XVIII
Orthodox Mall
St. Eustathios and St. Menas, an icon at the monastery of Bodjani
Pilgrims' Ampullae and the Well of St Menas - 1
Menas, Hermogenes, and Eugraphos the martyrs
Biographish-Bibliographisches
Synaxarion of the Orthodox Church
Others Saints
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