Miracles of St. Menas in a 12th-Century Byzantine Synaxarion (translation into Polish)

Katarzyna Piotrowska

University of Silesia in Katowice image/svg+xml , Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5601-1719


Abstract

The presented text offers a Polish translation of the five miracles of St. Menas, as recorded in a Byzantine  synaxarion composed in the 12th century. In the Introduction the circumstances of the collection’s composition are discussed and the key features of the recomposition of the miracles in comparison to their original Greek versions from the 5th–7th centuries are highlighted. The analysis focuses on the functions of the modifications and omissions, revealing the compiler’s deliberate choices influenced by local, historical, and cultural factors. The study examines both the collection as a whole and each miracle individually to identify common elements among all the translated texts, as well as those specific to particular narratives. The translation is accompanied by historical and linguistic commentary.

Keywords:

Translation, St Menas, miracles



Five Miracles of St. Menas, ed. J. Duffy – E. Bourbouhakis, Five Miracles of St. Menas, w: Byzantine Authors: Literary Activities and Preoccupations. Texts and Translations Dedicated to the Memory of Nicolas Oikonomides, red. J.W. Nesbitt, Leiden – Boston 2003, s. 68‑76.

Acta sancti Menae martyris Aegyptii (BHG, 1250), ed. G. van Hooff, „Analecta Bollandiana” 3 (1884) s. 258‑279.

Anna Comnena, Alexias, ed. A. Kambylis – D.R. Reinsch, Annae Comnenae Alexias, Berlin – New York 2001.

Basilicorum libri XV, ed. G.E. Heimbach et al, Leipzig 1833‑1897.

Christiphorus Mytilanaeus, Calendaria metrica, ed. E. Follieri, I calendari in metro innografico di Cristoforo Mitileneo, t. 1, Brussels 1980, s. 327‑481.

Chronicon Paschale, ed. L. Dindorf, Chronicon paschale, t. 1, Bonn 1832, s. 3‑737.

Constantinus VII Porphyrogenitus, De thematibus, ed. A. Pertusi, Costantino Porfirogenito. De thematibus, Vaticano 1952, s. 59‑100.

Miracula S. Menae Graece, ed. I. Pomiałowskij, Żitie prepodobnogo Paisija Wielikogo i Timofieja patriarcha Aleksandrijskogo, powiestwowanie o czudesach sw. wielikomuczenika Miny (Житие преподобного Паисия Великого и Тимофея патриарха Александрийского повествование о чудесах св. великомученика Мины), Petersburg 1900, s. 62‑89; L. Silvano – P. Varalda, Per l’edizione dei Miracula sancti Menae (BHG 1256‑1269), „Philologia Antiqua” 12 (2019) s. 59‑76

Miraculum S. Menae Graecum II, ed. P. Varalda, Il ricco Eutropio e i piatti. La versione greca di uno dei Miracula sancti Menae (BHG 1258), „Bollettino della Badia Greca di Grottaferrata” 18 (2021) s. 218‑223.

Stephanus Diaconus, Vita Stephani Iunioris, ed. M.F. Auzépy, La Vie d’ Étienne le Jeune par Étienne le Diacre, Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs 3, Aldershot and Brookfield 1997, s. 87‑177.

Synaxarium ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae, ed. H. Delehaye, Synaxarium ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (e codice Sirmondiano nunc Berolinensi), Acta Sanctorum 62, Brussels 1902, s. 185‑266.

Theodorus II Dukas Laskaris, Sermones VIII de theologia christiana, ed. C. Krikonis, Theodorou II Laskareōs peri christianikēs theologias logoi (Θεοδώρου Β’ Λασκάρεως περὶ χριστιανικῆς θεολογίας λόγοι), Thessaloniki 1988.

Angelov D., „Asia and Europe Constantly called East and West”: Constantinople and Geographical Imagination in Byzantium, w: Imperial Geographies in Byzantine and Ottoman Space, ed. S. Bazzaz – Y. Batsaki – D. Angelov, Washington 2013, s. 43‑68.

Browning R., Enlightenment and Repression in Byzantium in the 11th and 12th centuries, „Past and Present” 69 (1975) s. 3‑23.

Der Nersessian S., Remarks on the Date of Menologium and Psalter Written for Basil II, „Byzantion” 15 (1940‑1941) s. 104‑125.

Doroszewska J. – Doroszewski F., Menacing Menas? Saint Menas as a Military Saint and Divine Trickster in his Greek Miracle Collection (BHG 1256‑1269), w tym tomie.

Drescher J., Apa Mena: A Selection of Coptic Texts Relating to St. Menas, Edited, with Translation and Commentary, Cairo 1946.

Duffy J., Revelations and Notes on a Byzantine Manuscript at Harvard, w: Early Christian Voices: In Texts, Traditions and Symbols. Essays in Honor of François Bovon, ed. D. Warren – A. Brock, D. Pao, Biblical Interpretation Series 66, Leiden – Boston 2003, s. 409‑415.

Duffy J. – Bourbouhakis E., Five Miracles of St. Menas, w: Byzantine Authors: Literary Activities and Preoccupations. Texts and Translations Dedicated to the Memory of Nicolas Oikonomides, ed. J.W. Nesbitt, Leiden – Boston 2003, s. 65‑81.

Hunger H., Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der Byzantiner, München 1978.

Kazhdan A., Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, London 1985.

Kazhdan A., Holy and Unholy Miracle Workers, w: Byzantine Magic, ed. H. Maguire, Dumbarton Oaks 1995, s. 72‑83.

Lauxtermann M., The Velocity of Pure Jambs, „Jahrbuch der Osterreichischen Byzantinistik” 48 (1998) s. 9‑33.

Lauxtermann M., Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres. Texts and Contexts, t. 2, Wien 2019.

Lazaris S., Thoughts on the Conception of Nature in Byzantium (11th-12th Centuries), „De Medio Aevo” 13/2 (2024) s. 353‑364.

Magdalino P., The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143‑1180, Cambridge 1993.

Magdalino P., Cultural Change? The Context of Byzantine Poetry from Geometres to Prodromos, w: Poetry and Its Contexts in Eleventh-Century Byzantium, ed. F. Bernard – K. Demoen, Farnham – Burlington 2012, s. 19‑36.

Papadopoulos-Kerameus A., Katalogos tōn en tais bibliothēkais tēs nēsou Lesbou hellenikōn cheirographōn (Κατάλογος τῶν ἐν ταῖς βιβλιοθήκαις τῆς νήσου Λέσβου ἑλληνικῶν χειρογράφων), Konstantynopol 1888.

Papavarnavas C., Unsung Heroes of Byzantine Hagiography. The Role of Animals in Martyrs’ Passions, w: The Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Relations in the Byzantine World, red. P. Marciniak – T. Schmidt, Abingdon – New York 2025, s. 107‑132.

Piwowarczyk P., Greckie i koptyjskie Męczeństwo św. Menasa. Wstęp i Przekład z komentarzem, „Śląskie Studia Historyczno-Teologiczne” 51/2 (2018) s. 361‑375.

Piwowarczyk P., Cuda św. Menasa według rękopisu Pierpont Morgan Library M.590 (Coptic Literary Manuscript ID 221; Clavis Coptica 398), „Vox Patrum” 80 (2021) s. 395‑418.

Piwowarczyk P., Prolegomena to the Study of the Miracles of St Menas „Vox Patrum” 94 (2025) p. 35-64.

Piwowarczyk P., O Żydzie i chrześcijaninie – koptyjskie, greckie i arabskie wersje cudu jednego z cudów św Menasa („Scripta Classica”, w rękopisie udostępnionym przez autora).

Pratsch T., Der hagiographische Topos: Griechische Heiligenviten in mittelbyzantinischer Zeit, Millennium-Studien 6, Berlin – New York 2005.

Silvano L. – Varalda P., Per l’edizione dei Miracula sancti Menae (BHG 1256‑1269), „Philologia Antiqua” 12 (2019) s. 51‑86.

Stamouli A.F., Information of Middle Byzantine Hagiography Texts about Equids, w: Echoing Hooves. Studies on Horses and Their Effects on Medieval Societies, red. A. Ropa – T. Dawson, Leiden – Boston 2022, s. 112‑138.

Starr J., The Jews in the Byzantine Empire 641‑1204, New York 1970.

Thomas D. – Mallet A., Synaxarion of the Great Church, w: Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History, t. 3, red. D. Thomas – A. Mallet, Leiden 2011, s. 574‑585.

Varalda P., Il ricco Eutropio e i piatti. La versione greca di uno dei Miracula sancti Menae (BHG 1258), „Bollettino della Badia Greca di Grottaferrata” 18 (2021) s. 207‑236.

Walter C., The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition, New York 2016.

Wipszycka E., The Birth of the Cult of St Menas, „Vox Patrum” 94 (2025) p. 9-34.


Published
2025-06-15


Piotrowska, K. (2025). Cuda św. Menasa wg. bizantyńskiego synaksarionu z kodeksu New York, Harvard University, Houghton Library Typ 243H. Vox Patrum, 94, 349–380. https://doi.org/10.31743/vp.18389

Katarzyna Piotrowska  katarzyna.warcaba@us.edu.pl
University of Silesia in Katowice image/svg+xml https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5601-1719



License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Papers published in Vox Patrum are covered by the Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) licence. Authors and users can use published works licensed under the CC-BY-ND since 2018. For earlier publications, copyrights are available under fair use rights in accordance with the Act of February 4, 1994 on copyrights and related rights.