THE LIFE OF THE GREAT MARTYR MINA
Saint Mina was an Egyptian, and Christian since early childhood. Having reached the age, he decided
to become a soldier,so he was sent to serve his country in Asia Minor, in the province of Phrygia. Due to the
fact that the town he was serving in was pagan and accustomed to worshiping the idols, obviously he could not cope
with this lifestyle.
During this time, the Roman Empire was led by Diocletian (284 - 305), who issued an edict of
prosecution of all Christians throughout the Empire. The edict stipulated that the Christians who served in
the army, either deny their faith and bring sacrifice to the Roman gods (idols), or leave the military service.
Consequently, the Christians abandoned the army. And so did Saint Mina. Unwilling to return to
Egypt, his homeland, se left for the mountains of Phrygia. There, alone, in silence, he spent time meditating
on God, the teachings of Christ and soul. Armed with fasting and prayers, following the advice of the
Saviour, he bears a strong battle with his inner man, in order to surrender it to the soul and complete
obedience to Christ and his commandments.
Seeing that their action has not brought the expected results, Diocletian and Galerius gave orders to
burn and demolish the church of Nicomedia and other smaller churches around, and through a new edict,
reinforced the threat with public execution of all the Christians who refused to obey.
In these hard times for the Christians, Saint Mina descended from the mountains and came to
Cotuania City in Phrygia, where he found out that a great pagan celebration was to take place. A lot of
people gathered in the town square. Saint Mina heard about the royal orders, and seeing what was going on
in the city, mustered his courage and began to preach about the true God, Christ, and His teaching, urging
people to abandon paganism, to receive Holy Baptism and to become good Christians. Of the royal
commands that can deprive man from flesh but cannot do more harm (Matthew 10.28) they should not be
afraid of.
Hearing this, the governor had Saint Mina thrown to jail until the end of the celebration, not wanting
to disturb or impede the party and fun of the people by bringing him to trial and sentence him. All the time
spent in prison, Saint Mina prayed and sang hymns, glorifying God.
Right after the celebration, Saint Mina was brought before Pirrus, who strongly urged him to deny
Christ and the faith in Him, and to bring sacrifice to the country’s gods (idols), promising not only his
freedom, but also gifts. Quiet and with determination to everything that could come upon him, Saint Mina
rejected the proposal and the promise, even if the ruler of the city threatened with torture like the ones
endured by so many other Christians, ending in death.
- I belonged to Christ, still do and will forever, answered Saint Mina
To this determined answer, Pirrus said:
- „Because Mina, the soldier, fell into godless Christianity and does not want to obey the
royal command to bring sacrifice to the gods, we hereby decide that he should be
beheaded with the sword and his body shall be burned.”
The soldiers seized Saint Mina, dragged him out of town, cut his head off and threw his body into the
fire. As soon as the soldiers left, the Christians came and took pieces of the Saint’s body out of the fire,
washed and anointed them with flavors, and buried them in a place they knew.
After the year 318, when Constantine the Great was emperor, the Christians removed the Saint’s
relics from the land of Phrygia and took them to his homeland in Egypt namely to Alexandria. In the place
where the relics were buried, a church was built in honor of Saint Mina. This church is known for the
miraculous occurences of spontaneous healings, so people turned to it for help.
Each year, on the 11th of November, the Orthodox Church honors the Holy Great Martyr Mina. Some
of his relics are to be found in church „St. Mina-Vergului” in Bucharest.
Wonderful discovery of the holy relics
When the Lord wanted to reveal the place where the body of Saint Mina was buried, He resorted to
the following way: there was a shepherd, who had a lamb suffering of scab; one day the lamb slipped into a
fountain near the place where the relics of Saint Mina were buried. Coming out of the water, the lamb rolled
into the sand and healed on the spot. Amazed, the shepherd began to mix the sand with water and anoint any
suffering lamb with it. They healed immediately.
The news spread quickly in the Byzantine Empire, and reached also the Emperor of Constantinople
(apparently Saint Constantine itself), who had only one daugher suffering from leprosy. The king sent her to
the place where the relics of Saint Mina were, to find out from the shepherd how the miracle worked.
Following his instructions, the girl took sand, moistened it with water and rubbed it onto her body, then
spent the night there. During her sleep, she saw Saint Mina who spoke to her: „Wake up early, dig in this
place and you will find my body.”
When she woke up, she was healed and, starting to dig, she found the body of the Saint. She quickly
sent word to her father about what happened. The emperor rejoiced, thanking and praising God. As a sign of
gratitude, the emperor offered financial support and sent out people to build a church in the honor of the
glorious martyr Mina in that place.
Later on, during the reign of the Roman emperors Arcadius and Honorius, it was decided that an
impressive city should be built on that very spot, which was named Abu Mena (abu – father, holy).
Bury-buried