Pilgrim's Flask with Saint Abus Menas Flanked by Camels

Pilgrim's Flask with Saint Abus Menas Flanked by Camels

Coptic (Egypt), 4th-6th century

terracotta
height 10.8 cm
width 7.6 cm

Hallie Ford Museum Label Text
Saint Menas was an Early Christian martyr from Egypt who was beheaded at Alexandria. His body was transported by camel to a place in the western desert where later, in the fourth century, Karm Abu Mena, or the house of Saint Menas, was built, an important destination for pilgrims. The pilgrims who visited the site left with unglazed flasks sealed with wax and filled with holy oil from the sanctuary or water from the miraculous spring. Thousands of these flasks have been found throughout the Mediterranean world. On this flask, Saint Menas is characteristically represented between two camels with his arms outstretched in an attitude of prayer (orans).

Willamette University, Hallie Ford Museum of Art: SPG90.052
Gift of Mark and Janeth Hogue Sponenburgh