4 VI: Przemysław Piwowarczyk (Uniwersytet Śląski), Miracles of St Menas as a historical source

Abstract

Narrations about miraculous interventions of St Menas are preserved in an extremely complicated cluster of miracle collections preserved in several languages and dozens of Mss.  Although they could give a valuable glimpse at realities of pilgrimage and Apa Mena sanctuary, they were only rarely used in this purpose. In my presentation, I propose three steps. Firstly, I list and assess the sources and, taking under scrutiny the Coptic and Greek collections, I argue for the preference for the former. Secondly, I try to discover the rationale behind the composition of the collections and pinpoint them chronologically. Finally, I reconstruct the pilgrim’s itinerary as well as economic and organisational aspects of Apa Mena sanctuary.

Handout

Can be dowloaded here