The Greek Miracles of *Menas (8), ascribed to Timothy of Alexandria, recounts how Menas (soldier and martyr buried at Abu Mena, S00073) revealed the theft of a sheep, committed by a rich pagan man against a poor Christian widow; the former’s perjury is punished by paralysis. Written in Greek in Alexandria, probably in the 5th/6th c.
E07448
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Timothy of Alexandria, Miracles of Menas (CPG 2527, BHG 1256-1269)
Miracle 8. The rich man and the widow (BHG 1264)
Summary:
There was a very rich pagan man from the village of Constantiana in the district of Marmarica. Under his house, there lived a poor old woman whose only possession was a sheep. At Menas’ feast, he proposes to her that they visit the shrine together, but she refuses to go with him, unless he accepts baptism. He promises to follow her instructions. Rejoicing at his decision, the widow instructs him to slaughter a fat sheep from his flock, in order to have provisions for their journey. Inspired by the devil, the rich pagan secretly has the widow’s sheep slaughtered and cooked. Unable to find it, the widow despairs, but the rich man’s wife visits and consoles her, saying that the thief will be revealed, if they visit Menas’ shrine and take oaths. In the meantime, some neighbours inform them that the sheep was stolen by the rich man’s servant. Next day, they go to the shrine, and the rich man’s wife informs her husband that the widow is accusing him of the theft and asks that they take oaths. Although advised by both the old woman and his wife to simply confess his act and avoid the consequences of perjury, the pagan is enraged and accepts the challenge of the oath, assuming that the perjury will not harm him, while he is still unbaptised. They go down to the saint’s sarcophagus and he vows by the saint’s relics that neither he nor his servant stole the sheep. As he comes out of the crypt his legs and arms are suddenly paralysed. Terrified, he confesses his crime and promises to restore four sheep to the widow, but the saint’s voice is heard asking him to shut his mouth. The chief presbyter (archipresbyteros) and the crowd tie him onto one of the columns of the saint’s ciborium (kibourion), where he spends the rest of his life begging for forgiveness and being served by his wife. After his death [apparently he was not healed], his wife dedicates all of his fortune to the shrine and spends the rest of her life there.
Text: Pomialovskii 1900.
Summary: E. Rizos.
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Oath
Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Consecrating a child, or oneself, to a saint
Visiting graves and shrines
MiraclesMiracle after death
Punishing miracle
Miraculous protection - of people and their property
Miraculous sound, smell, light
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Pagans
Aristocrats
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
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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