Holy Martyrs Menas, Hermogenes and Eugraphus (+c. 313)
The holy Martyrs Menas, Hermogenes and Eugraphus suffered for Christ in the fourth century. Constantine, Equal to the Apostles (306–337), established Orthodoxy in the western part of the Roman Empire, but in the East the holy Church was persecuted for a long time yet. The zealous pagan Emperor Maximian Galerius (305–311) tried to root out Christianity completely in all the regions under his rule. For this purpose he sent a distinguished courtier, Menas, to Alexandria. Menas was a follower of the Saviour, but kept his faith secret.
On arriving in Alexandria the saint openly confessed Christ and began to preach Orthodoxy among the pagans. At the same time, by prayer and the sign of the life-giving Cross, he worked many miraculous healings. When the Emperor Maximian learned of his courtier’s activity, he was terribly enraged. This time he sent another nobleman, Hermogenes, to Alexandria, and charged him to convert Menas and the other Christians to paganism, or to kill them.
At the tribunal Menas courageously confessed the true God. Then by Hermogenes’s order his feet were cut off, his eyes put out, his tongue torn out, and, at death’s door, he was thrown into prison. At night Jesus Christ appeared to the blessed martyr and healed him of his bodily wounds. Meanwhile Hermogenes, who was a kind man by nature, fell into repentance for his cruelty. When in the morning he saw Saint Menas completely healed, he was seized with amazement and joy and believed in Christ. With him many Alexandrians confessed the true God and were baptised.
A few days later Hermogenes was made Bishop of Alexandria. He distributed all his property to the poor, in a short time destroyed all the idol-temples of the city, built churches in their place, and baptised many pagans who had been converted to Christianity. By calling on the Lord’s name and by the sign of the Cross the blessed one healed every kind of sickness and cast out demons.
The Emperor Maximian himself came to Alexandria with ten thousand horsemen. By the emperor’s order Hermogenes’s hands and feet were cut off. The severed limbs were burned publicly in a fire, and the saint himself was run through with a sword and thrown into the river. The executioners brought Menas too to the point of death by torture, but the Lord miraculously healed both martyrs: in the morning the Lord’s chosen ones appeared before the people gathered in the city square. “Truly great is God, the God of the Christians!” shouted the people, amazed at this miracle.
A Christian youth, Eugraphus, made the sign of the cross and courageously confessed Jesus Christ. The king flew into a rage and cut down the blessed martyr with a sword, and then ordered Hermogenes and Menas to be beheaded. The blessed souls of the holy martyrs joined the Kingdom of heaven.
Maximian wished to sink the bodies of the Lord’s chosen ones in the sea, but the iron chest with the holy relics did not sink in the water. The holy treasure floated to the shores of Byzantium; the bishop brought it ashore and buried it by the city walls. The Emperor Justinian built a church dedicated to Saint Menas of Alexandria, and Saint Joseph the Hymnographer (commemorated 4 April) composed a canon in praise of the holy martyrs.
