MENA, saint, martyr. — Very well known and venerated in antiquity, he is commemorated on 11 November in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, in the Greek Synaxaria, in the Gelasian Sacramentary of St Gallen, in the Gregorian Sacramentary, and in the marble calendar of Naples. In these sources, however, with the exception of the Hieronymianum, he is called a martyr of Cotiaeum in Phrygia; this is certainly a false indication, since his sepulchre-shrine stood nine miles from Alexandria, near Lake Mareotis, where a magnificent complex of buildings soon arose for the numerous pilgrims who flocked there from every part to venerate the Saint.
There, as early as the fourth century, the memoria of the Martyr was built in a crypt beside which the emperor Arcadius (395–408) constructed a large basilica, later enlarged by Marcian (450–57), which, together with the annexed buildings, survived until about the eleventh century, when everything fell into ruin. From this sanctuary the pilgrims took away, as souvenirs, small terracotta ampoules depicting the Saint between two camels, an allusion to a miracle recounted in the Passio, and containing blessed water drawn from a nearby spring.
From Egypt the cult of M. spread throughout Christendom, and sanctuaries in his honour arose in Palestine, Phrygia, Constantinople, Dalmatia, Africa, Naples, and Rome. Reliable information about the life and martyrdom
Although it was not prescribed for parish churches outside Rome, its use is nevertheless recommended; in its replies, the Sacred Congregation of Rites always refers to this booklet (cf. Decr. auth., no. 2915 ad 1; no. 2970 ad 5; no. 4049 ad 1). In minor non-parish churches and in oratories, its use is permitted only by special indult of the Apostolic See (Decr. auth., no. 3390).
of the Saint are lacking. In the same sepulchral sanctuary nothing was known about M.; only a collection of miracles attributed to Timothy, bishop of Alexandria, circulated there, and it was widely disseminated and translated into various languages. The Passio was written around the seventh century in Phrygia, where there existed a sanctuary of M. no less famous than the Egyptian one; modelled on St Basil’s homily in honour of the martyr Gordius, it has come down to us in three different recensions, independent of one another and widely circulated in antiquity. Around the ninth century, a forger writing under the name of St Athanasius, and passing himself off as an eyewitness of the events, disseminated another Passio in order to lend credibility to the sanctuary that existed in Constantinople, writing that M. had had Ermogenes and Eugraphus as companions in martyrdom, and that his body had been transported by angels to Constantinople. Thus there emerged another M., venerated with his companions on 10 December.
According to the first recension of the Passio, M. was an Egyptian soldier: following the tribune Firmilianus, he went to Cotiaeum in Phrygia, where he openly declared himself a Christian. The governor Pyrrhus, after subjecting him to many tortures, had him beheaded. The body was then burned, and the remains, carefully collected by the faithful, were brought back to Egypt, as M. himself had ordered before dying. — Vedi tav. XLI.