His story
An Egyptian, he was an officer in the Roman army in Phrygia, in Asia Minor. When the emperors Diocletian and Maximian began to persecute Christians, he threw down his soldier’s belt and withdrew to a mountain above the city to fast and pray. During a pagan festival he came down into the city and declared before everyone that he was a Christian. The governor Pyrrhus had him tortured, and when he would not deny Christ he was beheaded outside the city in AD 304; his friends gathered his relics by night and hid them until the persecution ended.
Martyr Menas of Egypt, Orthodox Church in America; The Roman Martyrology, 1916, 11 November
His feast day
11 November: His feast in the Catholic Church and in the Orthodox churches on the new calendar. Those on the old calendar keep it on 24 November.
The Roman Martyrology, 1916, 11 November; Martyr Menas, 11 November, Orthodox Church in America
Why people ask St Menas
Lost things
He was an Egyptian soldier who died for his faith in AD 304, and the Orthodox ask his help in finding what they have lost.
Where it comes from
Who wrote it
Greek and Russian Orthodox sing this hymn to him on his feast day, 11 November (24 November in the Russian Church). No one knows who wrote it.
Συνέκδημος ὀρθοδόξου χριστιανοῦ (New York, 1940), p. 800; the Russian Menaion for 11 November
In Greek
Ὡς τῶν Ἀσωμάτων συνόμιλον,καὶ τῶν Ἀθλοφόρων ὁμόσκηνον,συνελθόντες ἐν πίστει, Μηνᾶ, εὐφημοῦμέν σε,εἰρήνην τῷ κόσμῳ αἰτούμενοι,καὶ ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἡμῶν τὸ μέγα ἔλεος.
From Συνέκδημος ὀρθοδόξου χριστιανοῦ (New York, 1940), p. 800.
