Menas of Mavrovouni

Menas of Mavrovouni was an elderly monk of the Skete of St Anne on Mount Athos, elder of the cell of the Transfiguration at Mavrovouni, known for the gift of foresight. He reposed in 1916 and is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

The monk Onouphrios from Eastern Thrace, who arrived on Athos in 1888, was sent by a stranger at Iviron Monastery to Father Menas. The elder came out to meet him with joy and told him that the Mother of God had brought him from Constantinople, though the young man had said nothing. Menas tonsured him a monk in 1890, giving him the name Onouphrios, after his own elder, Onouphrios of Cyprus. In the chapel of the cell was an icon of the Mother of God that was seen to sweat.

He was a true monk, full of reverence and zeal for ascetic labours. He ate only once a day, after the ninth hour, and without oil. It is told of a fisherman who brought him fresh fish for the feast of the cell, caught on a Sunday; the elder refused the fish, and the cat, to whom one was thrown, would not touch it. The fisherman learned to honour Sundays and the great feasts.