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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Greek list of payments on a wooden lid from Kynopolis (Middle Egypt), mentioning a presbyter of *Menas (soldier and martyr buried at Abu Mena, S00073); datable to the 7th/8th c.

Evidence ID

E00209

Type of Evidence

Documentary texts - Wood

SB 16.12998:

A list of money payments in wine written on the back of a wooden lid, from Cynopolis, 7th/8th century, mentions in line 1 the recipient of such a payment:

πρ(εσβύτερος) ἄπα Μη(νᾶ)

'presbyter of Apa Mena'


Translation: G. Schenke

Full text available under: http://papyri.info/ddbdp/sb;16;12998


Cult Places

Cult building - unspecified

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy

Source

Wooden lid of a box used as writing material for two different lists, one of them for payments in wine (lines 1–3), the other for money payments (lines 5–27). Date given on palaeographical grounds, object located at Baarn, Private collection Moen 615.


Discussion

Whether these payments in wine were made to a church or a monastery of Menas, via its presbyter, remains unclear. But the receipt for wine indicates an active cult for Menas at Cynopolis in the 7th/8th century.


Bibliography

Edition:
Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Aegypten, XVI (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1985-1988). = SB

Further reading:
Sijpestijn, P.J., "Ein hölzerner Deckel in der Sammlung Moen," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 49 (1982), 112–114.

For a full range of the documentary evidence on *Menas:
Papaconstantinou, A., Le culte des saints en Égypte des Byzantins aux Abbassides (Paris: CNRS, 2001), 146–154.


Record Created By

Gesa Schenke

Date of Entry

24/11/2014

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00073Menas, soldier and martyr buried at Abu MenaΜηνᾶς Certain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Gesa Schenke, Cult of Saints, E00209 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E00209