The Greek Miracles of *Menas (10), ascribed to Timothy of Alexandria, recounts how Menas (soldier and martyr buried at Abu Mena, S00073) made a horse be born with three legs, which a pagan had vowed to dedicate both to Menas and his pagan god. Written in Greek in Alexandria, probably in the 5th/6th c.
E07450
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Timothy of Alexandria, Miracles of Menas (CPG 2527, BHG 1256-1269)
Miracle 10. The rich pagan man (BHG 1266)
Summary:
A pagan called Prinos lives near the lake, within the district of Alexandria. In his village, there is a great temple with a statue, to which he offers sacrifices and gifts. He has an excellent mare which was barren. Hearing some Christians talking about the miracles of Menas, he vows that, if his mare gives birth, he will consecrate three legs of the colt to the martyr, and one to his god. The horse indeed gives birth to a colt which is born with three legs. The saint appears to the man in a dream and challenges him to ask his statue to give a fourth leg to the colt. Prinos becomes a Christian, alongside his entire household, and offers half of his fortune to the saint’s shrine.
Text: Pomialovskii 1900.
Summary: E. Rizos.
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityVow
Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings
MiraclesMiracle after death
Punishing miracle
Miracles causing conversion
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Fertility- and family-related miracles (infertility, marriages)
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesPagans
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.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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