monastery of Saint Menas, which is located just north of the ancient site
Menas of Alexandria was
martyred in the late 3rd or early 4th century (see
Early Christianity). Various 5th-century and later accounts give slightly differing versions of his burial and the subsequent founding of his church. The essential elements are that his body was taken from Alexandria on a
camel, which was led into the desert beyond
Lake Mareotis. At some point, the camel refused to continue walking, despite all efforts to goad it. This was taken as a sign of divine will, and the body's attendants buried it on that spot. Most versions of the story state that the location of the tomb was then forgotten until its miraculous rediscovery by a local shepherd. From the Ethiopian
Synaxarium (
E.A.W. Budge, trans.): And God wished to reveal the [place of the] body of Saint Mînâs. And there was in that desert a certain shepherd, and one day a sheep which was suffering from the disease of the scab went to that place, and dipped himself in the water of the little spring which was near the place, and he rolled about in it and was healed straightway. And when the shepherd saw this thing, and understood the miracle, he marvelled exceedingly and was astonished. And afterwards he used to take some of the dust from that shrine, and mix it with water, and rub it on the sheep, and if they were ill with the scab, they were straightway healed thereby. And this he used to do at all times, and he healed all the sick who came to him by this means. Word of the shepherd's healing powers spread rapidly. The synaxarium describes
Constantine I sending his sick
daughter to the shepherd to be cured, and credits her with finding
Menas' body, after which Constantine ordered the construction of a church at the site. (Some versions of the story replace Constantine with the late-5th century emperor
Zeno, but
archaeologists have dated the original foundation to the late 4th century). By the late 4th century, it was a significant pilgrimage site named Martyroupolis, where Christians sought healing and other miracles. Menas flasks are a particular type of small
terracotta ampullae sold to pilgrims as containers for
holy water or holy vigillamp-oil which are found very widely around the Western Mediterranean, dating roughly from the century and a half before the Muslim conquest. They are cheaply made but impressed with images of the saint that are of significance in the study of
iconography; it is presumed they were made around the city. During the reign of
Arcadius, the local archbishop observed that crowds were overwhelming the small
church. He wrote to the eastern emperor, who ordered a major expansion of the facilities, the first of three major church expansions which would eventually take place. By the end of
Late antiquity, Abu Mena had become the leading pilgrimage site in Egypt. Around the mid-6th century, the port town of
Philoxenite was established on the southern shore of Lake Mareotis to support pilgrimage to Abu Mena. Built on the ruins of a Roman settlement, it served as a transit hub fit equipped with rest houses where pilgrims could stay before continuing their journey. Its construction is believed to have been financed by Philoxenos, a prominent figure in Byzantine politics at the time. Abu Mena was destroyed during the
early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century. ==Archaeological excavations==