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Bringing the Holy Land Home: The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece

St. Menas pilgrim flask (sixth century CE)

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When was this flask made? By Sean Gilsdorf

New methods of scientific dating may eventually allow us to determine the date of production of such flasks with greater accuracy. At this point, we do not know exactly when our flask was made, although it is likely to have been in the sixth or early seventh century. The cult of St. Menas spread rapidly in the fifth and sixth centuries, with the rise of Christianity in late antiquity, and the flasks themselves were being produced from the early sixth century.
How was this flask made? By Sean Gilsdorf

Some pilgrim flasks were made of glass or metal, such as this sixth- or seventh-century example from Syria dedicated to the martyr—and Menas's contemporary—St. Sergios. Our flask, however, was made from a simple and inexpensive type of ceramic or pottery called terracotta produced from refined clay (indeed, the name derives from the Latin words for "baked clay"). In the ancient and medieval world, this type of pottery was akin to tin or plastic today. People used it to make humble and everyday items involved in food service and food preparation, as well as lamps, dolls, figurines, and game pieces.

According to experts, the body of the flask was created using a two-piece mold bearing the image of St. Menas and the camels. The handles were attached afterward. The flask was then fired in a kiln. Since terracotta is porous, it is possible that the flask was lined with pitch or another waterproof substance. Like other objects purchased by pilgrims, this flask was originally mass-produced. Most of the surviving Menas flasks are between six and fifteen centimeters in height.
Who made this flask? By Sean Gilsdorf

The flask was made by the potters who set up production at Abu Mina. Remains of the potters’ houses and the kilns they used are still present at the site, and archeologists have found other items there, including dolls and table ceramics. Across medieval Europe, the center of a saint’s cult was normally controlled by local church figures, such as a bishop or the canons associated with a church or cathedral. In a similar way, it is likely that the officials associated with the complex at Abu Mina issued licenses to the potters who actually produced the flasks.
Why was this flask made, and how was it used? By Sean Gilsdorf

Medieval pilgrims, like tourists today, liked to take home souvenirs. So, when pilgrims traveled to the shrines of their favorite saints, they liked to bring back little tokens or mementos from their visits to the shrines of famous saints. Sometimes, these souvenirs were quite humble and easily portable—stones or pebbles taken from the vicinity, or bits of cloth touched by the holy relics. The officials in charge of the sites of saints’ cults, however, liked to control the business of pilgrims’ merchandise in order to keep hucksters at bay. For this reason, they promoted items such as badges, flasks, and medals, whose production they could license for a fee.

The pilgrim may have purchased the little flask already filled with blessed water. He or she also might have visited the cisterns at the site to have it filled. The blessed water was thought to have curative or apotropaic powers (i.e. it was able to ward off evil). The flask would have been sealed with a cork or a stopper, and it is likely that a cord was attached to the two handles so that the flask could be dangled around the neck.

Archaeologists have suggested that pilgrims’ souvenirs were sometimes ceremonially discarded when the pilgrim arrived home, in the same way that you might throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Many pilgrims’ badges, for example, have been found on the banks of the River Thames, near bridges.
Where did this flask go? By Sean Gilsdorf

As the archeologist William Anderson has noted, "Menas flasks are probably the most prevalent form of surviving late antique pilgrim artefact." Hundreds of Menas flasks have been found all over Europe and the former Byzantine lands, from England in the north to as far south as Sudan; the latter finds suggest that Nubian or Ethiopian Christians visited the site. The flask’s provenance does not indicate where this particular flask was found, although its relatively poor state of conservation indicates that it was probably excavated from the soil. It was purchased by a New York collector named C. Dikran Kelekian in 1983 and sold to the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection of the Department of the Classics at Harvard University in 2012. From there, it was transferred to the Harvard Art Museums.
The St. Menas flask: sources and further reading By Sean Gilsdorf

John of Alexandria's Encomium for St. Menas, written in the seventh or eighth century CE: James Drescher, Apa Mena: A Selection of Coptic Texts Relating to St. Menas (Cairo, 1946), 126-149.

A Coptic account of St. Menas's martyrdom: Drescher, Apa Mena, 100-104.

Five Greek miracle tales of St. Menas: John Duffy and Emmanuel Bourbouhakis, "Five Miracles of St. Menas," in Byzantine Authors: Literary Activities and Preoccupations, ed. J.W. Nesbitt (Leiden, 2003), 65–81.

William Anderson, "An Archeology of Late Antique Pilgrim Flasks," Anatolian Studies 54 (2004): 79-93.

Peter Grossman, "Abū Mīnā," in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. Alexander Kazhdan (New York, 1991), pp. TK.

________, "Pilgerunterkünfte in Abu Mina," in Für Seelenheile und Lebensglück: Das byzantinischen Pilgerwesen und seine Wurzeln, ed. Despoina Ariantzi and Ina Eichner (Mainz, 2018), 201-210.

________, "The Pilgrimage Center of Abū Mīnā," in Pilgrimage and Holy Space in Late Antique Egypt, ed. David Frankfurter (Leiden, 1998), 281-302.

Alexander Kazhdan and Nancy Patterson Ševčenko, "Menas," in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. Kazhdan, pp. TK.

Gary Vikan, "Menas Flasks," in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. Kazhdan, pp. TK.
What is this? By Sean Gilsdorf

This is a pilgrim’s flask. It is about nine centimeters high, seven centimeters wide, and two centimeters from front to back—roughly the size of a softball that has been flattened to an inch thick. A pilgrim’s flask, or ampulla, was designed to carry water or oil that had been blessed by the relics of the saint.

This particular flask is associated with the cult of St. Menas. Menas was said to have been a Roman soldier of the late third century, who served in the army of the emperor Diocletian. After converting to Christianity, he was martyred for his faith. According to his later biography, the camel carrying his remains home from Phrygia arrived at Abu Mina in Egypt (south of the city of Alexandria), and refused to go any further. A spring arose at the spot, and the resulting oasis became the center of his cult.

Pilgrims who came to worship at the shrine of St. Menas purchased flasks like this one, and carried them home with them. This flask bears the image of the saint flanked by two kneeling camels, which are the symbols associated with the saint. A similar representation of Menas with his two camels can be found on the ivory box, or pyxis, seen here (London, British Museum no. 1879,1220.1). This object may have been produced in Alexandria around the same time as our flask, and features a series of images depicting the life and martyrdom of Menas.
Where was this flask produced? By Sean Gilsdorf

The flask likely was produced in Abu Mina, located in an oasis to the south of the city of Alexandria, near the mouth of the Nile River. The site features several churches, of which the most important was the martyrion, a structure located over the saint’s tomb. Other buildings in the complex included a baptistery, basilica, a monastery, two baths, and a kind of hostel for visitors (likely with segregated quarters for men and women). There also were private houses and other buildings in the vicinity. Sick pilgrims were welcomed in an unusual building that held the incubation rooms, where they sought healing.

Abu Mina was nearly destroyed during Persian invasions of Egypt in 616-620, and only partially rebuilt afterward. The Arab conquest of 639-42 brought Eypt under the control of the Umayyad caliphate, and Abu Mina persisted as a Coptic Christian site until the tenth century, after which it was abandoned. According to legend, after the Arab conquest of Egypt and the decline of the monastic complex at Abu Mina, Menas’s coffin floated across the Mediterranean Sea to Constantinople, where his relics were rediscovered by the emperor Basil I. Thereafter, the site of the cult moved from Egypt to Byzantine shores.