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The monastery of St. Menas flourished as a very important and very active site of devout pilgrimage. It honors a late third or fourth-century martyr. It was situated on the edge of Egypt’s Western Desert, but not forbiddingly far from Alexandria. It may have been the largest Christian monastic establishment in the fifth and sixth centuries. Pilgrims took away decorated ceramic flasks (showing St. Menas flanked by two kneeling camels) of its holy water as souvenirs and for curative purposes to many distant parts of the Later Roman Empire. It was overrun and wrecked in the political and military religious upheavals of the seventh century CE. The site is important for understanding the nature of early Christian monasticism.

The White Monastery at Sohag

Name: Abu Mina (Abu Mena)

Material: Stone

Size: Unknown

Date: 4th to 7th centuries CE

Place of Origin: Egypt (about 45 km southwest of Alexandria)

Location: Egypt (about 45 km southwest of Alexandria)

Source and Registration#: Wikimedia Commons. Link to resource
Creative Commons Copyright
Attribution: Einsamer Schütze
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. (accessed April 1, 2010).

Walter E. Kaegi

Professor of History, University of Chicago