By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint Menas lived during the reign of Maximian, and as a soldier he belonged to the order of the Noumeroi, called the Routalikon, under the ruler Argyriskos, in Kotyaeios of Phrygia. Because he could not bear to see the error of the idols prevailing, he climbed a mountain, striving to purify his heart with fasting and prayers. After he had sufficiently strengthened himself and ignited his soul with the divine desire for Christ, he came down from the mountain. So he went and stood in the midst of the idolaters and with power confessed his faith in Christ. For this reason they beat him, they scratched his flesh very much with hairy cloths and they put him in a burning cauldron. Finally, after they had wounded his whole body with his constant dragging on thorns, they killed him with a sword.
The eyes of the holy poet Theophanes, full of faith and God’s grace, become our spiritual glasses today, in order to see the other, hidden dimension of the martyrdom of the Holy Great Martyr Menas, but also of his post-martyrdom state. The spectacle that first reveals to us when the earth, sanctified by his blood, covers his holy body, is truly magnificent. As if we were in a spiritual planetarium, it guides us to see, together with him, the sunset of the Saint in this world and his glorious sunrise in the world of heaven, of the Kingdom of God. “Earth now embraces your steadfast body, O blessed one, having endured the contest; the spirit ascends to heaven with the spirits of the Martyrs, rejoicing, and shining with the most radiant glory.” The Saint, like the other Saints celebrating with him, Saints Victor, Vincent and Stephanie, constitute the jewels of the invisible heaven, of the Church, just as the stars adorn the created firmament of the sky. “The stars adorn the heavens, Compassionate one, but the Church is adorned with Menas, Victor, Vincent and Stephanie.” And yet: the Hymnographer takes us to the face-to-face relationship of Saint Menas with the Almighty Lord, Who “smelled” his fragrance like freshly baked bread from Menas’ martyrdom and his reference to Him like fragrant incense. “Being deified you now see Him face to face, Menas.” “You appeared as bread in the midst of a burning fire, being baked… and emitting a divine fragrance, which God perceived.”
However, the Holy Hymnographer also gives us the other dimension, as we said, of the martyrdom itself. On the surface, we see martyrdom, pain, blood, burnt flesh. At the same time, he takes us deeper: “You have put off the leather tunics of sin with the wounds, and you have put on a garment that never grows old, blessed one, woven by the grace that has become manifest.” With the eyes of the body we see flesh and blood flowing. With the eyes of faith we see the God-woven tunic that the martyr wears. That is why, while we go to weep for what a man suffers, we rejoice and laugh for what he receives as the glory of Heaven. “There is for us a great cause for amusement, keeping the memory of the Martyrs.” And it is not only the miraculous things that the Saint himself suffers from his martyrdom, but also those that he brings as a result of his martyrdom: to crush the devil and to humiliate the enemies of the faith. “Dragged, O Martyr, and pierced by sharp shards, you crushed the sting of the vengeful demon.” We will not cease to emphasize this: what the Christian suffers for the sake of his Lord constitutes victory and glory for all people against evil and wickedness. For it is precisely he who participates in the Passion of Christ, by which the power of the enemy was crushed.
The prerequisite for all the shocking events that occur in the “depths” of reality is, of course, love for Christ. What gave Saint Menas, as well as all the saints, the power to transcend nature itself, was the supernatural love for Christ. Their eros for Him made them dominate the supposedly insurmountable violence of nature, because it turned them completely towards Him. “For divine eros, having seized upon your very nature, caused forgetfulness, Menas." We have emphasized this repeatedly: without the grace of God, the result of love for Him, no one can endure the tortures. “For the divine grace present, O Menas, has strengthened you.” And it follows that this grace, finding a way for the world to see the transparent existence of the Saint, makes him perform miracles. And one of his “infinite” miracles we quote below:
“A believer once came to the temple of Saint Menas to pray, whereupon he went to an inn to stay. But when the innkeeper realized that the one who came was wearing a golden brooch, he got up in the middle of the night and killed the man. He cut him into pieces and put him in a basket, hung him somewhere, and waited for dawn. He was in anguish about how and where to take him, wanting to hide him in an unseen place. So while he was thinking about these things, the Holy Martyr of Christ appeared on horseback like a soldier, and asked about the stranger who had stayed there. The murderer certainly pretended not to know, so the Saint got off the horse and entered the interior. And after lowering the basket, he said: 'What is this?' And the innkeeper, full of surprise, fell from his fear at the feet of the Saint like a lifeless corpse. Then the following amazing thing happened: the Saint reassembled the man's dismembered body, prayed for him and resurrected him, saying to him: 'Give glory to God.' And he, as if waking up from sleep, and after realizing how much and what he had suffered from the innkeeper, glorified God. And after thanking the man who appeared as a soldier, he bowed down to him. The Saint lifted him up, took the stolen gold from the murderer, gave it to him and said: 'Now go on your way.' As for the murderer, after he had strictly rebuked him and beat him, and after seeing his repentance he granted him the remission of his crime, and prayed for him, whereupon he mounted his horse again and disappeared from the eyes of the innkeeper."
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
