Holy Three Abbas and Venerable Martyrs Menas, David and John

Sts. Menas, David and John (Feast Day - April 12)

Verses

Three passion-killing Abbas who were servants of God,
Were killed with arrows by man-killers.

The Holy Three Abbas and Venerable Martyrs Menas, David and John met their end by being shot with arrows.

Though some sources place these Venerable Martyrs in Palestine in the seventh century, having been shot with arrows by Arabs, other sources place them in Egypt among the Desert Fathers there.

Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite identifies Abba Menas with the one written about in the Paradise of the Holy Fathers, where it says:

Abba Menas told us: "Once when I was staying in my cell a brother came to me from afar, begging me and saying: 'Take me to Abba Makarios.' I got up and went to the elder with him. When he had offered a prayer for us we sat down and the brother said to the elder: 'Father, I have spent thirty years not eating meat and still have a fight not to do so.' The elder said to him: 'Do not tell me you have spent thirty years not eating meat, my son, but tell me the truth: how many days have you lived when you did not speak against your brother, did not condemn your neighbor and when no vain word came out your mouth?' The brother prostrated himself, saying: 'Pray for me, father, that I might make a start.'"

Perhaps the Abba David is the one mentioned in Sayings 29 and 33 of Abba Arsenios. The Abba John mentioned is unknown otherwise.