Meneas of Nicopolis

Holy Martyr Meneas of Nicopolis was one of the two jailers who believed in Christ when they saw the wonder done for the martyrs. He is counted among the forty-⁠five martyrs of Nicopolis, a city of Armenia, who suffered in the time of the emperor Licinius (307-324).

Licinius had ordered that all who would not return to paganism be tortured and killed, and more than forty Christians presented themselves of their own will to the governor Lysias, led by Leontius, Maurice, Daniel, Antony and Alexander. They were struck with stones and shut in prison. At midnight, as they sang psalms, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the prison was filled with light. The angel announced that their struggle was nearing its end and that their names were written in heaven. Two jailers, Meneas and Viriladus, saw this wonder and believed in Christ.

The next day the governor resolved to put the witnesses of Christ to death. After cruel torments they were burned in fire and their bones were thrown into the river (around the year 318). Pious people found and kept them, and after the Church received freedom a church was built on that place in the name of the forty-⁠five martyrs. The Azbyka page says nothing else in particular of Meneas. He is commemorated on 23 July, in the new style.