Mamas of Caesarea
The Christmas ball represents a figure of Saint Mammes of Caesarea. It is designed to be hung on a Christmas Tree or exposed on a display stand.
Saint Mammes is presented in a Roman legionary outfit. In his hand he is holding a staff, he is also carrying a lamb, and at his feet there is a lion.
Attributes
A staff
The staff relates to the Mammes’ life of a poor shepherd he led after the death of his parents and his nanny.
A lamb
According to the legend, the lamb was saved from a lion by the saint, and then given to the judge who released Mamas from tax obligation.
A lion
The lion relates both to the legend of Mammes avoiding unjust taxes, and to the story of his imprisonment with predatory lions and making one of them his companion.
What do we remember from the life of Saint Mamas:
- He was born around 259 in today’s Turkey, and he died a martyr’s death around 275 in Caesarea (Turkey).
- His lived at the time of persecution of Christians in the 3rd and 4th centuries.
- The parents of Mammes, Theodotus and Rufina, were imprisoned for their Christian faith and the prison was a place of Mammes’ birth.
- After the execution of his parents, Mammes was brought up by a widow named Ammia, who died when the boy was in his teens.
- After the death of his nanny, Mammes led a very poor life as a shepherd, he lived in a cave near the town of Morphou (now Cyprus).
- A legend has it that Mammes was forced to pay unjust taxes, but he evaded them in an extraordinary way.
- Mammes, just like his parents, was tortured for his faith; first by the governor of Caesarea and then by Emperor Aurelian.
- He was miraculously liberated from a prison by an angel, and he hid on a mountain near Caesarea.
- When he was captured again, Mammes was thrown into a prison full of lions, but they did no harm to him and one of them even became the young man’s companion.
- The local ruler, Alexander, sentenced Mammes to death and personally struck him in the stomach with a trident.
- Wounded and bleeding Mammes managed to drag himself to a place near a theatre before his soul was carried into heaven by angels.
- The saint’s corpse was transferred from Caesarea to Langres in France, where he is still the patron saint and there is a reliquary containing the remains of Mammes.
- In Lombardy, northern Italy, there is a custom according to which young mothers offer bread and cheese to St Mammes and pray for lactation.
From the very first moments, Mamas’ life was full of difficulties. He was born at the time of cruel persecution of Christians by Roman emperors. What is more, he was born in a prison, where his mother and father were thrown into because of their faith in Christ.
The name Mammes (or Mamas) is taken from children's speech and means a man acting as a mother or wet nurse.
He is venerated in the Catholic and Orthodox Church as a child martyr, one of the many victims of Christian persecution.
The liturgical memorial of St Mammes falls on the 17th of August.
St Mammes of Caesarea is the patron saint of animals and their caretakers, nursing mothers and infants, and also those experiencing economic violence. His intercession is invoked in cases of broken bones and hernias.
The cult of Saint Mammes is especially widespread in France, Lebanon, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. There are numerous temples and also towns named in his honour: Deir Mimas in Lebanon, Agios Mamas in Greece, or São Mamede in Portugal, among others. The saint is not popular in Poland.
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