This pottery ampulla (small holy-water flask purchased at pilgrimage places as a souvenir, and mass-produced in Early Byzantine times) comes from Abu Mena, near Alexandria in Egypt. It has an oval body and short cylindrical neck and two handles. Both sides show the same subject: St Menas wearing a tunic and cloak, flanked by two camels. On either side of his head can be read the Greek inscription O AGIOS MENAS (St Menas).
The cult of St Menas, an Egyptian soldier in the Roman army, martyred because he refused to recant his Christian faith, was centred on Abu Mena near Alexandria. There was a healing spring, and pilgrims visiting the spring would take away sanctified water or oil from a lamp suspended in front of St Menas' tomb.
Pilgrim flasks like this have been dated from the late 4th to the 7th centuries. The tradition continued through Medieval times, and in England almost identical flasks made of lead were common 700 years later.
