Saint Minas “the Great Martyr”
Date of celebration: 11/11/2020
Saint Minas was born in Egypt in about the middle of the 3rd century AD. from pagan parents. However, the pagan environment in which he grew up did not manage to harden his heart which, when the moment came, screamed listening to the voice of the “heart and kidneys” (Psalms 7:10) God and thus the still-adolescent Minas became a Christian.
Growing up, he chose a career in the Roman army, in the cavalry battalion of the Rutaliki, under the command of Argyriscus. The seat of his unit was in Kotyaion (modern-day Kyutachia) in Asia Minor. There, Minas distinguished himself both for his wisdom and for his bravery, and for this reason he was highly regarded in the military circles.
Unfortunately, three centuries after the coming of Christ, the old world still did not want to accept the redemptive message of the Resurrection, remaining complacent, selfish and self-destructive attached to decay and darkness. The emperors of Rome again began to “kick into the center” (Acts 26:14). Diocletian and Maximian ordered a persecution against Christ’s rational sheep, a persecution which lasted from 303 to 311 AD. So the Roman soldiers were ordered to arrest and tyrannize the Christians trying to get them to convert. This was also the first critical moment in which Minas was asked to say “the big yes or the big no”. His faith in Christ defeated worldly “prudence” and logic.
The Saint could not stand it, he threw his military belt to the ground, thereby disclaiming his status as a soldier – persecutor of the Christians, and fled to the adjacent mountain. There he lived as an ascetic, preferring the company of the beasts of nature to the company of depraved heathens. There, “wandering in deserts and seeing caves and the evils of the earth” (Hebrews 11:38), he lived for a long time with fasting, vigil and prayer. The ascetic life and quietness warmed his heart, igniting divine love and the desire for martyrdom.
Thus, at the age of about fifty years, after a divine revelation that the hour of martyrdom had arrived, he went down to the city, on the day of a pagan festival, and brazenly, in the midst of the raging pagans, confessed Christ as the one and true God, mitigating the deaf and unfeeling idols. He was arrested and dragged, beaten, before Pyrrhus, the commander of the city. There, speaking with courage, he revealed his name, his origin, his military past and, of course, boldly and unwaveringly proclaimed his faith in Christ. He was taken to prison, and on the morning of the next day, after the end of the pagan festival, he was brought before the ruler again, who accused him of insulting the gods in front of him, and of deserting the army. Agios accepted the accusations without hesitation.
Pyrrhus, at first respecting his age and beauty, tried with words and promises but also with threats afterwards, to distract him from the faith of Christ. When his efforts met with the Saint’s steadfast refusal, he ordered that he be subjected to excruciating torture. The executioners whipped him so hard that his whippers were changed two and three times. They hung him and flogged him until the internal organs of the Saint began to be seen. Then, as if this were not enough, they rubbed his afflicted body with a hairy cloth and finally dragged him naked and bruised on metal spikes. The Martyr of Christ endured everything with bravery and fortitude, applying the Gospel “and do not be afraid of those who strip the body, but win the soul of those who are weak” (Matthew 10:28).
In fact, at the time of his martyrdom, some of his old comrades urged him to sacrifice to the idols, saying that his God would justify him seeing the tortures to which he was subjected. The Saint resolutely refused and answered them that he sacrifices even himself to Christ, who strengthens him to endure the wounds.
The ruler, admiring the aptness and wisdom of the Martyr’s answers, asked him in amazement how it was possible that a rough soldier like him could answer in this way. And the Saint, with the enlightenment of God, answered him that Christ gives this ability to his martyrs, as he promised in the Gospel: “But when they offer you to the synagogues and authorities and authorities, do not worry how or what apologize or what did you say For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that hour which he sees” (Luke 15, 11-12).
Then, in despair, the tyrant ordered his beheading. Walking towards the place of execution, the Saint managed to ask some crypto-Christians to take his remains to Egypt.
His beheading took place on November 11 at the beginning of the 4th