The Greek Miracles of *Menas (9), ascribed to Timothy of Alexandria, recounts how Menas (soldier and martyr buried at Abu Mena, S00073) claimed a camel which had been promised to him by a man who then neglected his vow. Written in Greek in Alexandria, probably in the 5th/6th c..
E07449
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Timothy of Alexandria, Miracles of Menas (CPG 2527, BHG 1256-1269)
Miracle 9. The camel (BHG 1265)
Summary:
This story concerns the unnamed son of a personal friend of the saint, Porphyrios from the city of Panephaiat (Menas’ hometown). Porphyrios’ son has a barren camel, and asks for the saint’s help that she might give birth, promising to offer him the first offspring she would produce. The camel gives birth three times, but the man neglects his vow. The saint comes on horseback, followed by a great cloud which encompasses all four camels (the mother and little ones) and takes them to the shrine. When their owner finds that they have disappeared, he realises the cause of his misfortune. The saint appears and reveals to him that he has come to claim what belonged to him, and has spared him from punishment for the sake of his gratitude to his father, Porphyrios. The man visits the shrine and finds his four camels there. He decides to dedicate all his belongings to the saint and spends the rest of his life at the shrine, where he is appointed herdsman of all the camels belonging to the shrine.
Text: Pomialovskii 1900.
Summary: E. Rizos.
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityBequests, donations, gifts and offerings
MiraclesMiracle after death
Punishing miracle
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesRelatives of the saint
Animals
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 1 in the Coptic collection of Menas' miracles (see E01222).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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