Menas of Egypt (also Mina, Minas, Mena, Meena; Greek: Ἅγιος Μηνᾶς; Coptic: ⲁⲃⲃⲁ ⲙⲏⲛⲁ ⲛ̀ⲧⲉ ⲛⲓⲫⲁⲓⲁⲧ; 285 – c. 309), a martyr and wonder-worker, is one of the most well-known Coptic saints in the East and the West, due to the many miracles that are attributed to his intercession and prayers.

His feast day is celebrated every year on 15 Hathor in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, which corresponds to November 24 on the Gregorian Calendar.

In Eastern Orthodox churches that follow the old style or Julian calendar, it is likewise celebrated on November 24.

There are many sources written in different languages (Koine Greek, Coptic, Old Nubian, Ge'ez, Latin, Syriac, Armenian) relating to Menas.

At the age of fifteen Menas joined the Roman army and was given a high rank due to his father's reputation.

After spending five years as a hermit, Menas had a revelation of angels crowning martyrs in glory, and longed to join them.

When the time of persecution ended, during the papacy of Athanasius of Alexandria the pope had a vision of an angel appearing to him and ordering him to load Menas' body on a camel and head towards the Libyan Desert.

As the people were getting ready to face them, the Roman governor decided to secretly take the body of Menas with him to be his deliverer and his strong protector.

Most versions of the story state that the location of the tomb was then forgotten until its miraculous rediscovery by a local shepherd.

[10] Sick people from all over the Christian world used to visit that city and were healed through the intercessions of Menas, who became known as the Wonders' Maker.

Today, numerous little clay Menas flasks, or bottles for holy water or oil on which the saint's name and picture are stamped, are found by archeologists in diverse countries around the Mediterranean world, such as Heidelberg in Germany, Milan in Italy, Dalmatia in Croatia, Marseille in France, Dongola in Sudan, Meols (Cheshire) in England, and the holy city of Jerusalem, as well as modern Turkey and Eritrea.

[2] Menas is generally shown between two camels, the animals that, according to the legend, returned his body to Egypt for burial.

According to Orthodox Christian belief, in June 1942, during the North-Africa campaign that was decisive for the outcome of the Second World War, the German forces under the command of General Rommel were on their way to Alexandria, and happened to make a halt near a place which the Arabs call El Alamein.

Here the weaker Allied forces, including some Greeks, confronted the numerically and militarily superior German army, and the result of the coming battle of El Alamein seemed certain.