Christ and Saint Menas

Why this icon

After writing the icon of the Flight into Egypt, I wanted to continue exploring the Coptic tradition by writing this famous icon of Christ and Saint Menas the Abbot.

I knew this image long before I began learning iconography, through my visits to the Taizé community. Choosing it as a model meant returning to a familiar image and approaching it in a new way, through the act of writing an icon.

About this icon

This icon draws on the famous Coptic image of Christ and Abbot Mena from Bawit in Middle Egypt, now preserved in the Louvre. The museum dates the original to the eighth century. This contemporary interpretation retains its essential gesture: Christ standing beside a man and resting his right hand on his shoulder.

Mena, also called Menas, is identified as an abbot, the head of a monastic community, associated with Bawit. Little is known about his individual life. He should not be confused with the Egyptian soldier-martyr of the same name. His presence here evokes a life of prayer and responsibility lived in the company of Christ.

Jesus’ arm forms a bridge between the two figures. His hand conveys closeness, support and trust: he stands alongside his friend. This gesture gives the image its familiar name, the “icon of friendship”. It can be contemplated as an invitation addressed to everyone, to receive Christ’s companionship and extend that friendship to others.

Christ holds a richly ornamented Gospel book, recalling his teaching and his identity as the Word of God. The cross within his halo distinguishes him from Mena, whose halo expresses holiness. The abbot’s raised hand can be read as a gesture of blessing. Both faces turn towards the viewer, opening their relationship beyond the two figures.

The Coptic character of the model appears in the directness of the composition, the strongly outlined forms and the large, attentive eyes. These features favour spiritual presence over naturalistic depth. Here the warm ochres, red garment and blue mantle bring the figures into clear focus, while the gold haloes give their faces a luminous setting.

The image has a special place in the prayer of the Taizé community. Brother Roger particularly appreciated it, and the community has helped make it widely known as the “icon of Christ and his friend”. Reproductions have accompanied its pilgrimages of trust, expressing friendship with Christ and reconciliation between people. This icon invites a simple confidence: to let Christ walk beside us, and to become a presence of friendship in turn.