Saint Menas was probably born in Egypt in the city of Niceous (Nakyus, near Memphis, though some sources provide that it is further into the Delta) and there he was martyred during the reign of the Roman Emperor, Diocletian, probably around 300 AD. 

We are told that his mother, Ophemia, was barren. It was said that when she praying in front of Virgin Mary’s icon, appealing for her intercession that God may give her a child, she heard a voice saying ‘ amen ‘. Therefore, when her prayer was answered, and she had a son, she called him Menas. His father ‘Odexius’, who was employed with the Roman Empire, died when Menas was young. When he joined the army, he was given a high rank in recognition of his father’s prominence.

The Greek Acts, published with a Latin translation in "Analecta Bollaniana", III 258 (Surlus XI 241) tell us that Menas was a Christian who served under the tribune Firmilian while a soldier. However, when the army came to Cotyaeus in Phrygia, Menas, on hearing of the edicts issued against the Christians by Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, deserted the army in order to escape death and hid in a mountain cave for five years, where in solitude he served God by fasting vigils and prayer.