St. Mina the Miraculous

Martyred on the Fifteenth of Hatour

St. Mina is considered one of the most popular saints in Egypt. He is well known as the “Thaumaturgus” or “Miraculous” because of the countless miracles God performed through him throughout the centuries. The Coptic Church commemorates his martyrdom on the 15th of Hatur, and the dedication of his original church on the 15th of Baouna. He is commemorated also by the Latin and Greek churches on the 11th of November.

St. Mina’s father, Eudoxius, was a native and governor of the city of Nakiyos (Nikiu). He was a good Christian who fasted and prayed. His brother was envious of him and he brought charges against him before the emperor. The emperor transferred him to Afrikia and appointed him governor over it. The people were pleased with him because he was merciful and God-fearing. St. Mina’s mother, Euphemia, had no children. One day she went to church on the feast of our Lady, the Ever-Virgin, the Mother of God, at Attribes. She saw the children in the church wearing their beautiful clothes with their parents. She heaved a sigh and wept before the icon of our Lady St. Mary, entreating her to intercede for her before her beloved Son, in order that He would give her a son. A voice came from the icon saying, “Amen.” She rejoiced in what she had heard and realized that the Lord had heard her prayers. When she returned to her home and told her husband about it, he replied, “May God’s will be done.”

The Lord gave them this saint and the called him Mina, according to the voice that his mother heard. When he grew, his parents taught him reading and writing and they reared him in a Christian manner. St. Mina learned about the Bible, the holy books, and the teachings of the Coptic Church. When he was eleven years old, his father departed at a good old age. After three more years, his mother followed his father through the path of all humans, and St. Mina had to face the world alone. However, due to his good upbringing, and his continuous spiritual relationship with God, his reaction to his parent’s departure was the distribution of his vast inherited wealth on the poor and needy. He preferred to spend all his time with God in church, to know Him more and fill his life with holiness. St. Mina devoted his life to fasting, praying and living a Christian life. Because of everyone’s love towards him and his father, they placed St. Mina in high positions. In spite of that, he did not forsake his prayers and worshipping.

At the age of 15, the region’s new governor, a friend of Eudoxius, convinced St. Mina into joining the army under his command. In the army, St. Mina set a good example of humility, spirituality, and mercy among his comrades. He did not allow himself to mix with them and their worldly affairs, but kept good relations full of respect and cooperation with them all. St. Mina stayed in the army for about 3 years until the Roman emperors Diocletian and Maximian issued their famous decree which was intended against Christians. In that decree, the emperors ordered all peoples under their rule to worship the Roman idols Apollo and Artemis. During this time, many Christians received the crown of martyrdom for the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Mina decided to leave the army and give all his belongings to the poor and needy. He chose to leave the world and its evil worldly matters and live in the desert worshipping God with all his heart.

In the desert, St. Mina found the proper setting for himself to be alone with God, as nothing was there to distract him from living for God. He started to fulfill his heart’s desire for being one with God whom he loved with all his senses. In order to sustain himself, St. Mina used a few camels to help him in cultivating some land for food. Every evening, the camels used to greet St. Mina by bowing their heads towards him before they retired, as if they could see God’s presence in him. After spending about five years in the desert with its open horizon and clear sky, living with God in a one continuous prayer, fasting and contemplating the One he loved and yearned to be with forever, St. Mina had a close encounter with God. One day he saw the heavens open and the martyrs crowned with beautiful crowns. He heard a voice saying, “He who toils for the Name of the Lord Christ shall receive these crowns.” St. Mina then heard a voice saying, “Blessed are you Mina, because you have been called to the pious life from your childhood. You shall be granted three crowns; one for your celibacy, the second for your asceticism, and the third because you will be martyred.” The heavenly voice told St. Mina also that a shrine would be named after him, and people from all over the world would visit it to worship God. St. Mina was overwhelmed by a great desire to live in heaven. When the revelation was over, St. Mina realized that this was God’s sign for him to go back to the world to be a witness for his glory.

In the morning, St. Mina went back to the city which he had left a few years before. There, a large gathering had assembled in the stadium to celebrate the feast of the city’s patron idol. There was a show on the stadium field when St. Mina arrived. He was determined to make his appearance so obvious to everyone, so he decided to enter the stadium field to announce his beliefs in front of all the people. He shouted, “I was found to them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.” By interrupting the festival and declaring his faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, St. Mina captured the attention of all present, including the region’s new governor. Then silence prevailed, and reigned over them all, as they were amazed when they saw a hermit in simple poor garments shouting amidst them, “I am a Christian.” The governor sent his soldiers to imprison St. Mina. After a little questioning, the governor and his cabinet recognized St. Mina and they tried very hard to convince him to decline from confessing his faith in Christ. Our saint was very firm, and never yielded to their requests. The governor then ordered his guards to put St. Mina in prison and to bring him back for trial on the next day.

In front of the Roman governor’s court, the saint was questioned in detail about his beliefs, and the reason for his spectacular return to the city. With a heart full of peace, St. Mina explained how he left the army to dedicate himself to the service of the Lord, and how he preferred the life in the desert over the disturbed living among his army comrades, following unjust orders of the pagan rulers. They promised him much if he just ignored his beliefs. But as a solid fighter, he stood in front of the whole court and revealed to them how much God’s love was doing to him, how eager he was to depart and to be with Christ, and how insignificant the worldly matters were to him. The governor finally realized how resolute St. Mina was and decided that the only way to get him was through torture.

At the beginning, the governor ordered St. Mina’s arms and legs to be stretched and tied to four pegs on the ground, then to have him whipped with ox thongs until his body was all covered with blood. When this was done, they bound him on a “rack” and pulled his joints without any mercy. Afterwards, they pulled the saint’s body back and forth over sharp pins fastened to the ground. They then rubbed his wounds vigorously with a rough piece of cloth. They followed that by scorching his bleeding body with flaring torches for a few more hours. St. Mina was then beaten with sticks, whipped again, slapped and punched on the head until he lost most of his teeth. Through all that torture, St. Mina was getting closer and closer to God. The pain which St. Mina faced allowed him to live in our Lord’s crucifixion, ignoring his own feelings and uniting his body with that of our Savior. During these proceedings, the governor was constantly trying to persuade St. Mina to put an end to his suffering by renouncing his Christian faith. He promised him wealth and power in return. St. Mina repeatedly rejected the governor’s demands. This aroused the governor’s rage and he continued to torture the saint. Finally, the governor gave up and decided to send the saint to the governor’s brother, to complete his trial.

Under guard, they carried St. Mina in a boat heading to a nearby region, to put him on trial again before another governor. When they reached their destination, they kept him in prison where he met many other Christians waiting for their trials. In prison, with all the pain generating from the wounds his body had, St. Mina kept encouraging and cheering the other prisoners, urging them to continue their endurance until the end, in order to receive the crowns when they meet their Savior. In the middle of the night, while St. Mina was praying, the darkness of prison suddenly was replaced by an extremely bright light coming from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In the midst of his heavenly joy, St. Mina heard the Lord telling him how pleased he was with his courage, and how much glory awaited him at the end of the road. The Lord told him also that his sufferings would soon end, and his body would be honored by many, and because of him, many people would know God. After the revelation, St. Mina waited impatiently for the moment when he would leave his body to united with God.

The following morning, St. Mina was put on trial. As usual, the governor tried to convince him to reconsider and to go along with the emperor’s orders. Then, the torture started again. They whipped St. Mina a hundred times with ox thongs, then they tried to cut his bleeding body with an iron saw. To their surprise, the saw melted in their evil hands. Finally, when the governor found that there was no use for his attempts to change St. Mina’s mind, he ordered to have him beheaded. How happy our saint was when he heard the good news, his passport to Heaven where he always desired to be. In a big gathering, they dragged him to the execution site, while he was rejoicing for his coming happiness when he would meet with the Lord. At the site, St. Mina knelt on the ground and raised his weak eyes toward the sky in a final thanksgiving prayer. Then he peacefully stretched his neck to his executioner. In seconds, the sword went down and St. Mina’s head rolled away from his body to announce the culmination of our saint’s spiritual struggle. This happened around the year 309 A.D..

After beheading St. Mina, the merciless governor was not satisfied because he felt that the saint did win the battle, so he ordered his subordinates to burn the body to get rid of all that the saint left behind. They made a huge fire, then they threw the body in its midst. For their surprise, the fire seemed to have no power over St. Mina’s body. They kept the fire burning for three full days and three nights without any result. Finally, they gave up and left the body alone. St. Mina’s sister came and gave the soldiers a lot of money and they allowed her to take the body. She put it in a sack made of fronds and decided to go to Alexandria, as her brother had previously advised her. She embarked with her brother’s body on one of the ships to Alexandria. During the trip, sea beasts came out of the water and attacked the passengers aboard the ship. They were frightened and screamed with fear. The saint’s sister prayed to the Lord and asked for the intercession of her brother. While the passengers were in fear, fire went forth from her brother’s body and burned the faces of the beasts. They dived immediately into the water and as they reappeared, the fire burned them again. They finally dived and did not appear again.

When the ship arrived at the city of Alexandria, most of the people went out with the father, the Patriarch. They carried the holy body with reverence and honor and entered the city with a venerable celebration and placed it in the church, after they shrouded it in expensive shrouds. When the time of persecution ended, the angel of the Lord appeared to the honorable Patriarch, St. Athanasius the Apostolic. The angel informed him of the Lord’s command which was to place the body of St. Mina on a camel and to take it out of the city without letting anyone lead it, but to follow it from a distance until they arrived at a place called Lake Bayad, in the district of Marriout. There they heard the voice saying, “This is the place where the Lord wishes the body of his beloved Mina to be placed.” They lowered the body, placed it in a coffin, then they situated it in a beautiful garden and many miracles happened through the body.

Later on, the people of Pentapolis (the five cities) rose against the cities around Alexandria. The people were getting ready to face the Berbers, and the governor decided to take the body of St. Mina with him to be his deliverer and his strong protector. He took the body secretly and through the blessings of this saint, he overcame the Berbers and returned victoriously. The governor decided not to return the body of the saint to its original place and wanted to take it to Alexandria. On the way back, they passed by Lake Bayad, St. Mina’s original place. The camel carrying the body knelt down and would not move in spite of frequent beatings. They moved the body onto another camel, but again this second camel did not move from its place. The governor finally realized that this was the Lord’s command. He made a coffin from decay-resistant wood and placed the silver coffin in it. He then returned it to its place and invoked St. Mina’s blessings, then returned to his city.

When the Lord wanted to disclose the location of St. Mina’s holy body, He did it in this manner. There was a shepherd in the desert. One day a sheep with a disease slipped down into the water of a well near the place of the saint’s body. The sheep then came out of the water and rolled over in the sand of that place, and instantly the sheep was healed. When the shepherd saw this miracle, he was amazed. He took some of the sand and mixed it with water and smeared it over every sheep with that disease, as well as on those with other infirmities, and immediately they were healed. The news of these miracles spread in all the countries until the Emperor of Constantinople heard of them. He had an only daughter and she was leprous. Her father sent her to the place where the saint’s body was and she inquired from the shepherd how these miracles were happening. She took some of the sand, moistened it with water, smeared it on her body and slept the night in that place. In her sleep she saw St. Mina saying to her, “Arise early and dig in this place, and you will find my body.” When she woke up, she found herself cured. She began digging as she was told and she found the holy body. She sent word to her father, informing him of the news. The emperor rejoiced exceedingly, thanked the Lord and glorified His Name. When Pope Athanasius the Apostolic saw the miracles of this great saint, he ordered a church to be built in that place. The emperor sent men and money to build the church for St. Mina which was consecrated on the fifteenth day of the month of Baouna. The news of St. Mina the Miraculous spread and many sick people were brought to the saint’s tomb and were healed.

During the reign of emperor Zeno (474-491 A.D.), a city started to develop around St. Mina’s shrine at Marriout. This was due to the large number of pilgrims visiting the region, seeking God’s blessings and powers through the intercession of St. Mina. The fame of the city reached its apex during the fifth, sixth, an d seventh centuries. St. Mina’s shrine was considered the pride of the desert. However, the city with its glorious shrine started to decline in the ninth century, possibly due to religious persecution, depopulation, and Bedouin intrusions. By the 13th century, St. Mina’s city turned to a deserted ruin. They saint’s relics were buried under his collapsed shrine.

Near the end of the 13th century, the box containing the saint’s relics was found among the remains of the city. The plunderers who found it we unaware of what was in the box. The box was brought to Cairo to be sold for a price. But God arranged that St. Mina’s relics ended up in the possession of a virtuous man who kept them in his house and took good care of them. When the time came, God revealed the identity of the relics, and Pope Benjamin sent the relics in a big caravan to the saint’s church in Fum El-Khalig, Cairo. St. Mina’s relics remained in that church since the 14th century. Parts of the saint’s relics though, were removed recently to be placed in two other churches: the first was in 1959 A.D. to St. Mina’s monastery in old Cairo, and the second was in 1962 A.D. to the newly founded monastery in the deserted city of the saint in Marriout. St. Mina’s city had been discovered earlier by the German Kaufmann expedition in July 1905 A.D..

When the late Pope Abba Kyrillos VI was ordained Patriarch over the See of St. Mark, he took interest in building a large monastery in the area of Marriout in the name of his beloved friend, St. Mina the Miraculous. He spent a great deal of prayers and fasting in establishing it. There are now many churches in the monastery, visited by many worshippers who go there to receive St. Mina’s blessings and to ask for his intercessions. Pope Kyrillos VI also purchased one hundred acres of land and built a fence around it. He ordained a number of monks who had a high degree of scientific and religious education. Pope Kyrillos had a strong love for St. Mina. When His Holiness Pope Kyrillos VI became a monk, he took on the name of St. Mina as Father Mina the hermit. During his papacy, he frequently called on the name of St. Mina to intercede on his behalf. The monastery built by Pope Kyrillos VI is still being completed under the care of our beloved Pope Shenouda III.

May the intercession of St. Mina the Miraculous be with us and glory be to God forever. Amen.