The Holy GreatMartyr Menas
Commemorated on November 11
The Holy GreatMartyr Menas, an Egyptian by birth,
was a soldier and served in the city Kotuan under the centurion Firmilian
during the reign of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian (284-305). When the
co-emperors began the then fiercest persecution against Christians in history,
the saint lost all desire to serve these persecutors and, having left the
service, he withdrew to a mountain, where he asceticised in fasting and prayer.
Once during the time of a pagan feastday he happened to arrive in the city, in
which earlier he had served. At the climax of the festal games, which all the
city had come out to see, rang out the accusing voice of the saint of God,
preaching faith in Christ, the Saviour of the world.
At trial before the governor Pyrrhos
the saint bravely confessed his faith and said, that he had come hither, in
order to denounce all of impiety. Saint Menas spurned he suggestion to offer
sacrifice to the pagan gods, and he was put to cruel tortures, after which he
as beheaded. This occurred in the year 304. The body of the holy martyr as
ordered to be burnt. Christians by night gathered up from the burnt-out fire
the undestroyed remains of the martyr, which later were installed in a church
in his name, built after the cessation of the persecution at the place of the
suffering and death of the GreatMartyr Menas.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
