Menas: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Menas, an Egyptian by birth, was a brave and admired officer in the Roman army in Phrygia under Diocletian and Maximian. When the persecution of Christians began, he renounced his rank and withdrew to the mountains to live in fasting and prayer. Filled with zeal, he came down in the midst of a pagan festival at Cotyaeum and openly proclaimed himself a Christian. He endured cruel tortures without wavering and was beheaded about 304. His friends secretly took his relics to Egypt, where a great shrine southwest of Alexandria drew pilgrims from across the Christian world, and flasks from his shrine have been found as far away as Ireland. He is the patron of Heraklion on Crete. Orthodox Christians pray to St Menas for help in finding lost things, for justice against thieves, for healing, and for soldiers in war.

What the faithful pray for

• help in finding lost objects
• the return of lost or stolen property
• the exposure of theft and injustice
• the recovery of lost or weakened faith (Romanian usage)
• healing of illness
• deliverance from demonic possession
• protection in time of war

Protection

• soldiers in war
• from thieves and injustice
• from illness
• from demonic powers

Miracles

• In October 1942, on the eve of El Alamein, St Menas appeared leading camels out of his ancient church into the German camp, and the advancing army fled in confusion. (source)
• In 1826 St Menas himself appeared in Heraklion to protect the Christians of the city. (source)

Read the life of St Menas