The Greek Miracles of *Menas (7), ascribed to Timothy of Alexandria, recounts how Menas (soldier and martyr buried at Abu Mena, S00073) rescued from a crocodile a man who was travelling to the saint's shrine as a pilgrim. Written in Greek in Alexandria, probably in the 5th/6th c.
E07447
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Timothy of Alexandria, Miracles of Menas (CPG 2527, BHG 1256-1269)
Miracle 7. The three brothers (BHG 1263)
Summary:
Three brothers from Alexandria decide to visit the shrine and offer piglets to the saint. During their journey, they stop by the lake and take the piglets to drink water. One of the piglets is grabbed by a crocodile, and, while attempting to rescue it, its owner is grabbed by the beast and drawn into the water. The man calls upon the martyr Menas for help, who appears on horseback in the middle of the lake and rescues him. The martyr instantly heals the victim's injured belly, causes him to fall into a deep sleep, and transfers him to his shrine. The man wakes up by the saint’s sarcophagus, and is soon found by the clergy who mistake him for a thief. He is arrested by the angry crowd, but he recounts his story and the people are astonished at the miracle. In the meantime, the saint visits his brothers who weep by the lake for his death. Appearing on horseback, he encourages them to go to the shrine where they will find their brother, and disappears before their eyes. Encouraged by the apparition, they go the shrine and join their brother.
Text: Pomialovskii 1900
Summary: E. Rizos
Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Pilgrimage
Vow
Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings
MiraclesMiracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
Miraculous protection - of people and their property
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesAnimals
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.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
08/04/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00073 | Menas, soldier and martyr buried at Abu Mena | Μηνᾶς | Certain |
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