St. Mennas's Day definition of St. Mennas's Day in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

St. Mennas's Day

November 11

There are actually two different saints by the name of Mennas. One was born in Egypt and enlisted in the Roman army. He hid in a mountain cave in Phrygia to avoid persecution, but then boldly entered the arena at Cotyaeum and proclaimed that he was a Christian—an act of courage for which he was beheaded in 295. The second St. Mennas was a Greek from Asia Minor who became a hermit in the Abruzzi region of Italy and died in the sixth century.
In Greece, St. Mennas's Day is observed by shepherds. Because he has the power to reveal where lost or stolen objects lie, his name is invoked by shepherds who have lost their sheep, or who wish to protect their flocks from wolves. Shepherds' wives refrain from using scissors on St. Mennas's Day. Instead, they wind a thread around the points of the scissors—a symbolic action designed to keep the jaws of wolves closed and the mouths of the village gossips shut. St. Mennas's Day is also regarded as the beginning of the winter season.

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