Late Roman / Byzantine large pottery St Menas flask

M23

£330.00

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A large moulded pottery pilgrim flask decorated to both sides with a depiction of Saint Menas standing between two camels. A Greek inscription by the head of the saint reads O ΑΓIOC ΜΗΝΑC (“Saint Menas”).

Saint Menas was a Coptic soldier in the Roman army who was martyred because he refused to recant his Christian faith. The soldiers who executed Menas set his body on fire for three days but the body remained unharmed. Menas’ sister then bribed the soldiers and managed to carry the body away. She embarked on a ship heading to Alexandria, where she placed his body in a church.

When the time of persecution ended, during the papacy of Athanasius of Alexandria the pope had a vision of an angel appearing to him and ordering him to load Menas’ body on a camel and head towards the Libyan Desert. At a certain spot near a water well at the end of Lake Mariout, not far from Alexandria, the camel stopped and wouldn’t move. The Christians took this a sign from God and buried Menas’ body there.

The Berbers of Pentapolis rose against the cities around Alexandria. As the people were getting ready to face them, the Roman governor decided to secretly take the body of Menas with him to be his deliverer and his strong protector. Through Menas’ blessings, the governor overcame the Berbers and returned victorious. However, he decided not to return the body to its original place and wanted to take it to Alexandria. On the way back, as they passed by Lake Mariout at the same spot where the body was originally buried, the camel carrying the body knelt down and would not move. People moved the body to another camel, but the second camel would not move either. The governor finally realized that this was God’s command and the location became a site of Christian pilgrimage.

Visitors filled flasks such as this with water from the spring which was assumed to hold magical properties for healing wounds and protecting both pilgrims and merchants on their travels.

Culture
Egypt, Late Roman/Byzantine period, c. 480-650 AD

Size
13.6 x 10.5 cms

Condition
One handle and part of rim lost, a small stabile crack on one side of the body and general light wear

Provenance
Ex. collection: Dr and Mrs Rowland Campion (1888-1971), thence by family descent; the Campion antiquities collection was exhibited at the Australian Institute of Archaeology in 1972. Dr Campion served as a medical officer during World War I, attending some of the worst action including Ypres and the Dardanelles.

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