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E07441: The late 4th to 6th century collection of Miracles of *Menas (soldier martyr of Egypt, S00073), ascribed to Timothy of Alexandria, recounts the story of a pilgrim who was massacred by an innkeeper on his way to the saint’s shrine, but his dismembered body was revived by the saint who appeared on horseback at the inn. Written in Greek in Alexandria.

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posted on 2019-03-10, 00:00 authored by erizos
Timothy of Alexandria, Miracles of Menas (CPG 2527, BHG 1256-1269)

Miracle 1: The pilgrim (BHG 1257)

Summary:

A rich man from Isauria arrives for private business in Alexandria, and, hearing about the miracles taking place at the saint’s shrine, he decides to visit it and pray. He crosses the lake and arrives at a place called Loxoneta where he seeks hospitality at a man’s store. During the night, the landlord murders him, and steals his purse of money. He cuts the victim’s body into pieces and hides it in a basket, intending to throw it into the lake. Immediately, the martyr Menas himself arrives on horseback, in the form of a spatharios, followed by a great crowd. The saint reveals the crime and the murderer confesses his act, begging for forgiveness and promising to give to the spatharios the victim’s money plus 100 pieces of gold, and to become a monk at the shrine of Menas. The saint asks him to place the basket before him, he prays and raises the dismembered man from the dead. Menas reveals himself to the victim and the murderer and disappears. Both men come to the shrine and make dedications. The murderer declares his act, while his victim is astonished to hear that he was slain. The murderer becomes a monk and lives at the shrine for another seven years, while the victim returns to Alexandria and declares the miracles, causing the conversion of many pagans and heretics.

Text: Pomialovskii 1900.
Summary: E. Rizos.

History

Evidence ID

E07441

Saint Name

Menas, a sixth-century hermit of Samnium : S01772

Saint Name in Source

Μηνᾶς

Type of Evidence

Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles

Language

  • Greek

Evidence not before

380

Evidence not after

700

Activity not before

380

Activity not after

700

Place of Evidence - Region

Egypt and Cyrenaica Egypt and Cyrenaica

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Alexandria Abu Mina

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Alexandria Hermopolis ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛ Ashmunein Hermopolis Abu Mina Hermopolis ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛ Ashmunein Hermopolis

Cult activities - Places

Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Saint as patron - of an individual

Cult Activities - Miracles

Miracle after death Punishing miracle Power over life and death Apparition, vision, dream, revelation Miracles causing conversion Miraculous protection - of people and their property

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits

Source

The collection is preserved, not always intact, in 69 manuscripts, on which see: https://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/oeuvre/9359/

Discussion

For the context of this story, see E07440.

Bibliography

Text: Pomialovskii, I., Житие преподобного Паисия Великого и Тимофея патриарха Александрийского повествование о чудесах св. великомученика Мины (St Petersburg, 1900), 61-89. Further reading: Delehaye, H., "Les recueils antiques de miracles des saints," Analecta Bollandiana 43 (1925), 5-85, 305-325. Efthymiadis, S., "Collections of Miracles (Fifth-Fifteenth Centuries)," in: S. Efthymiadis (ed.), The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography II: Genres and Contexts (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), 106.

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    Evidence -  The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

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