(DATE UNKNOWN.)
[Greek Menæa. This saint is commemorated by the Greeks on different
days.]
This hermit, called variously Aninas and Ananias, lived in the flat
deserts of the Euphrates, in a cave, with two lions, out of the foot
of one of which he had drawn a thorn which hurt it. The lions followed
him whenever he went to the Euphrates, distant four or five miles, to
draw water. This he was obliged to do daily, and the bishop of Cæsarea,
hearing of this, sent him the present of an ass to carry the water jars
for him; but Aninas would not keep the ass, but gave it to some poor
folk who were destitute.
Now there was a hermit who lived on a pillar in the same country, and
Aninas heard that he was sore troubled in mind; then, the story goes,
he wrote a letter comforting him, and sent it to him by one of his
lions. Aninas died on March 16th, at the age of one hundred and ten.