MENA, saint, martyr - The Martyr between two camels. Marble relief (6th century) - Alexandria, Museum.MENA, saint, martyr - Ampulla with the Saint between two camels (6th-7th cent.),MENA, saint, martyr - St. M. and stories of his life. Cretan-Venetian art. Crisoldo Marietti (17th cent.) - Syracuse, Archaeological Museum.
MENAS, Saint, Martyr. - Very well known and venerated in antiquity, he is commemorated on 11 November in the Hieronymian Martyrology, in the Greek Synaxaria, in the Gelasian Sacramentary of St. Gall, in the Gregorian Sacramentary and in the marble calendar of Naples. In these sources, however, except for the Hieronymian, he is called a martyr of Cotyaeum in Phrygia; this is certainly a false indication, since his tomb-sanctuary was located nine miles from Alexandria near Lake Mareotis, where an imposing complex of buildings soon arose for the numerous pilgrims who flocked there from every quarter to venerate the Saint.
There, as early as the 4th century, the memoria of the Martyr was built in a crypt, beside which the emperor Arcadius (395-408) built a great basilica, later enlarged by Marcian (450-57), which together with the adjoining buildings endured until about the 11th century, when everything fell into ruin. From this sanctuary pilgrims carried away, as a souvenir, small terracotta flasks depicting the Saint between two camels, an allusion to a miracle recounted in the Passio, and containing holy water taken from a nearby spring.
From Egypt the cult of M. spread throughout all Christendom, and sanctuaries in his honour arose in Palestine, Phrygia, Constantinople, Dalmatia, Africa, Naples, and Rome. There is, on the other hand, no reliable information about his life and martyrdom.
Although it is not prescribed for parish churches outside Rome, its use is nonetheless recommended; in its replies the Sacred Congregation of Rites always refers back to this booklet (cf. Decr. auth., n. 2915 ad 1; n. 2970 ad 5; n. 4049 ad 1). In minor non-parish churches and in oratories, its use is permitted only with a special indult of the Apostolic See (Decr. auth., n. 3390).
Bibliography3 worksL. Eisenhofer, Handbuch der balt. Liturgik, I, Freiburg of the Saint. In the same sepulchral sanctuary nothing was known of M.; there circul
BIBL.: L. Eisenhofer, Handbuch der balt. Liturgik, I, Freiburg of the Saint. In the same sepulchral sanctuary nothing was known of M.; there circulated only a collection of miracles attributed to Timothy bishop of Alexandria, very widespread and translated into various languages. The Passio was written around the 7th century in Phrygia, where there existed a sanctuary of M. no less famous than the Egyptian one; it was modelled on the homily of St. Basil in honour of the martyr Gordius, and has come down to us in three different recensions, independent of one another and very widespread in antiquity. Around the 9th century a forger under the name of St. Athanasius, passing himself off as an eyewitness of the events, circulated another Passio to lend credit to the sanctuary that existed at Constantinople, writing that M. had had as companions in martyrdom Hermogenes and Eugraphus, and that his body had been carried by angels to Constantinople. From this arose another M. venerated together with his companions on 10 December.
According to the first recension of the Passio, M. was an Egyptian soldier: following the tribune Firmilian he went to Cotyaeum in Phrygia, where he openly declared himself a Christian. The governor Pyrrhus, after many torments, had him beheaded. The body was then burned and the remains, carefully gathered by the faithful, were brought back to Egypt, as M. himself had ordered before dying. - See plate XLI.
Plate XLIAbove left: A BATH near the Basilica - Abu Mena. Above right: CRYPTOPORTICO with openings leading into the burial cells - Abu Mena. Below: NORTH WALL OF THE BASILICA (early 5th cent.) - Abu Mena.(da C. M. Kaufmann, Die Menasstadt, Lipsia 1910, tav. 47) · (da C. M. Kaufmann, Die Menasstadt, Lipsia 1910, tav. 7) · (da C. M. Kaufmann, Die Menasstadt, Lipsia 1910, tav. 13)Bibliography11 worksTillemont, V, Venczsa 1732, pp. 441-44, 758-61; Acta s. M. martyris Aegypti, in Anal. Boll., 3 (1884), pp. 258-70; P. Franchi de' Cavalieri,
BIBL.: Tillemont, V, Venczsa 1732, pp. 441-44, 758-61; Acta s. M. martyris Aegypti, in Anal. Boll., 3 (1884), pp. 258-70; P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, Osservazioni sulle leggende dei ss. martiri M. e Trifone, in Hagiographica (Studi e testi), 19, Rome 1908, pp. 9-18; K. M. Kauffmann, Die Menasstadt und das Nationalheiligum der altchristlichen Ägypten in der westalexandrinischen Wüste, Leipzig 1910; id., Ikonographie der Menas-Ampullen, Cairo 1910; R. Miedema, De heilige Menas, Rotterdam 1913; H. Delchaye, L'invention des reliques de St Menas à Costantinople, in Anal. Boll., 29 (1910), pp. 117-46; id., Les recueils des miracles des saints, ibid., 43 (1925), pp. 46-49; P. Peeters, Le tréfonds orienté de l'hagiographie byzantine, Brussels 1930, pp. 32-36; Martyr. Hieronymionum, p. 595 ff.; Martyr. Romanum, p. 511 f. Agostino Amore
Amore, Agostino, and Pietro Siffrin. “Mena, santo, martire.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VIII, coll. 667–668. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952. https://azioneromana.com/article/mena-santo-martire.
MLA
Amore, Agostino, and Pietro Siffrin. “Mena, santo, martire.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VIII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952, coll. 667–668. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/mena-santo-martire.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec8_mena_santo_martire,
author = {Amore, Agostino and Siffrin, Pietro},
title = {Mena, santo, martire},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VIII},
pages = {667--668},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1952},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/mena-santo-martire}
}
One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.
Click or scroll to zoom · drag to pan · Esc to close
