The Greek Miracles of *Menas (3), ascribed to Timothy of Alexandria, recounts how Menas (soldier and martyr buried at Abu Mena, S00073) rescued a woman, travelling alone to his shrine at Abu Mina, from being raped by a soldier. The woman also visited a shrine of *Thekla (follower of Paul the Apostle, S00092) in the same area. Written in Greek in Alexandria, probably in the 5th/6th c.
E07443
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Timothy of Alexandria, Miracles of Menas (CPG 2527, BHG 1256-1269)
Miracle 3. The sterile woman (BHG 1259)
Summary:
A rich woman from the region of Phekozea, called Sophia, who was married to a pious man, decides to visit the shrine and pray. Having no children to inherit her fortune, she intends to bequeath it to the shrine, for the forgiveness of her soul. She sets off alone in the desert, without disclosing it to her household or husband, and arrives at the shrine of Thekla. She is assaulted by a passing soldier and, while he attempts to rape her, she invokes the saint’s help. Menas appears on horseback, places the woman on the soldier’s horse and leads it to his shrine, while the rapist is dragged behind them, with his leg tied onto the horse. The soldier dedicates his horse to the shrine, and spends the rest of his life there, praying for forgiveness.
Text: Pomialovskii 1900.
Summary: E. Rizos.
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityConsecrating a child, or oneself, to a saint
Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings
MiraclesMiracle after death
Punishing miracle
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Miraculous protection - of people and their property
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Soldiers
Aristocrats
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. This story is Miracle 4 in the Coptic collection of Menas' miracles (see E01222).A detail of special interest here is the reference to a shrine of Thekla in the region of Menas' shrine, which apparently was on the way of the pilgrims. This may provide an explanation for the frequent appearance of the figure of Thekla on ampullae of Menas.
Bibliography
Text:Pomialovskii, I., Житие преподобного Паисия Великого и Тимофея патриарха Александрийского повествование о чудесах св. великомученика Мины (Zhitie prepodobnago Paisiia velikago, i Timofeeia patriarkha Aleksandriiskago Povestovanie o chudesakh sv. Velikomuchenika Miny), (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.
Efthymios Rizos
07/04/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00073 | Menas, soldier and martyr buried at Abu Mena | Μηνᾶς | Certain | S00092 | Thekla, follower of the Apostle Paul | Θέκλα | Certain |
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