Saint Menas

St. Menas, Greek Μηνάς, († 295 or 296 or 309 ) was probably born and executed in the 3rd century AD in Egypt.

After an ecclesiastical tradition, he was an Egyptian soldier who later lived as a hermit in Phrygia and interrogated after his public conversion to Christianity, was tortured and executed, in the course of the persecution of Christians by Diocletian. His relics are to be brought and buried from there to Egypt, " stay where the camels are ." According to another legend, he died a martyr's death until the year 309 AD.

As a saint he is especially venerated in the Coptic Church. The city, made ​​around his grave, which is about 40 km southwest of Alexandria in the 5th and 6th centuries Abu Mena ( Menas ) was until the 10th century an important place of pilgrimage. Since 1961, excavations by the German Archaeological Institute there are performed. Since 2001, Abu Mena is on the red list of UNESCO.

In the Catholic Church Menas is revered as a saint of merchants for retrieving lost items and in severe distress. His feast day is November 11.

Iconography

Menas is represented as a soldier on horseback, slaying the dragon, along with camels or with a hand over an open flame.

Patrozinien

• Koblenz Pride Rock: Parish Church of St. Menas, the only church patronage north of the Alps.
• Monastery of St. Minas of Kes, Armenia