MENSA. — The term is sometimes used altar (v.) erected over the tomb of a martyr. Thus St Augustine, speaking of the altar erected at the place of the martyrdom of St Cyprian, explains: «in eodem loco mensa Deo construcuta est et tamen mensa dicitur Cypriani, non quia ibi est unquam Cyprianus epulatus, sed quia ibi est immolatus» (Sermo 310, 2: PL 38, 1413).
At Rome, a certain Eusebius fabricè me(n)sas at(d) martyres in S. Paolo (A. Bosio, Roma sotterranea, Roma 1632, p. 148). In Africa, however, particularly in Mauretania Sitifiense and Numidia, the places where the brandea that had touched the tombs of martyrs were deposited were called mensae martyrum, such as those called reliquiae of St Menna and St Sebastian, deposited by Bishop Revocatus, according to the inscription of Henchir-Fellous (P. Monceaux, Enquête sur l'épigraphie chrétienne d'Afrique, in Mémoires présentés par divers savants à l'Académie des Inscriptions, 12 [1908], pp. 199-202). At Ain-el-Ksar there was a m. martyrum Felicis, Naboris (CIL VIII, 20573); near Boukirka, on a sarcophagus lid, one reads Petite me(n)sa Marturorum Renatus et Optata (P. Monceaux, Martyrs de Boukirka, in Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des Inscr. et belles lettres, 1920, pp. 122-27). The expression menso sanctorum is also found in two inscriptions near Satafi (Ain Kebira, today Peritgoville), one dating from the year 324 and the other very mutilated (CIL, VIII, 20314).
M. was also sometimes a synonym for tomb (CIL, VIII, 20480). An Elia Secundina calls m. the marble slab placed over her daughter’s tomb, on which food was set for the refrigerium (CIL, VIII, 20502). West of Tebessa, at Youks-les-Bains (Aquae Caesaris), there is a me(n)sa Pontiorum (P. Monceaux, Sur une table funéraire chrétienne decouverte à Youks-les-Bains, in Bulletin archéologique du Comité, 1917, pp. 241-61). At Guellal (Castellum Dianense), the me(n)sa Miggini Subjaconi (subdiaconi) (E. Albertini, ibid., 1925, p. 172). The term m. of the oils is used for the dish (lanx) made of marble, earthenware, or glass, generally placed on a masonry base, often faced with marble slabs, in which the frequently perfumed oil was placed; pieces of papyrus were lit in it and allowed to burn near the tombs of martyrs or of ordinary believers. Numerous examples have been found near tombs, for example those of S. Cornelio in Calliato and S. Crescenzone in Priscilla, and in certain cubicoli of the cemetery inter duas lauros; the devotees carried away a little of it as a pledge of blessing or eulogia (v.).