I recently had a sudden urge to buy a St Christopher medallion.

When I was a child many years ago I had been given one upon a visit to Canterbury Cathedral.

The story goes

St. Christopher carried Christ over the raging river (of life)

so, who was St Christ-Over?

perhaps none other than one St. Menas

Saint Mina (also Minas, Menas, Mena, Mennas) (285 – c. 309), the Martyr and Wonder-worker, is one of the most well-known Egyptian saints in the East and the West, due to the many miracles that are attributed to his intercession and prayers. Mina was an Egyptian soldier in the Roman army, martyred because he refused to recant his Christian faith

Where else have we encountered Minos ?

Minos

Gustave Doré‘s illustration of King Minos for Dante Alighieri‘s Inferno.

In Greek mythology Minos (/ˈmaɪnɒs/ or /ˈmaɪnəs/; Greek: Μίνως, Minōs) was the first King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every nine years, he made King Aegeus pick seven young boys and seven young girls to be sent to Daedalus‘ creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten by the Minotaur. After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in the underworld. The Minoan civilization of Crete has been named after him by the archaeologist Arthur Evans.

By his wife, Pasiphaë (or some say Crete), he fathered Ariadne, Androgeus, Deucalion, Phaedra, Glaucus, Catreus, Acacallis and Xenodice. By a nymph, Pareia, he had four sons, Eurymedon, Nephalion, Chryses and Philolaus, who were killed by Heracles in revenge for the murder of the latter’s two companions; and by Dexithea, one of the Telchines, he had a son called Euxanthius. By Androgeneia of Phaestus he had Asterion, who commanded the Cretan contingent in the war between Dionysus and the Indians. Also given as his children are Euryale, possibly the mother of Orion with Poseidon, and Pholegander, eponym of the island Pholegandros.

Co-incidence? Who knows?