M

…was one of the original disciples of Our Blessed Lord; but either that he had long been a Christian, or that he was an old man.

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July 12 · —

St. Mnason

St. Mnason

…was one of the original disciples of Our Blessed Lord; but either that he had long been a Christian, or that he was an old man.

Traditional feast

July 12
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Feast

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 221 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

…was one of the original disciples of Our Blessed Lord; but either that he had long been a Christian, or that he was an old man. Jason, who, in the Roman Martyrology, is confounded with him, was a Thessalonian, who entertained SS. Paul and Silas; and was, in consequence, attacked by the Jewish mob. " The Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city in an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Build up the community you belong to. This life was lived with and for a community.

Keep their day. Remember them on July 12 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.

Read more

The full original · 221 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: In the Roman Martyrology S. Jason, and not Mnason; but apparently erroneously. The entry is “ In Cyprus, S. Jason, an old disciple of Our Lord." But it was Mnason who was the old disciple of Cyprus. S. Luke says. Acts xxi. 16, “There went with us (to Jerusalem) also certain of the disciples of Casarea, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we lodged." Jason was another person. He is mentioned by S. Paul, in Rom. xvi. 21, as a companion of Luke and Sosipater. 1 He is probably the same as Jason the Thessalonian, mentioned in Acts xvii. 5—9.] NASON, the “old disciple, w is honourably mentioned in Scripture, like Gaius, Lydia, and others, as one of the hosts of S. Paul, probably at Jerusalem; though he met and accompanied the Apostle of the Gentiles to Jerusalem in his last journey, a.d. 60. He was a Cyprian by birth, and may have been a friend of S. Barnabas (Acts iv. 36), and possibly brought to the knowledge of Christianity by him. The expression, “old disciple,” used by S. Luke, by no means implies, as Baronius has supposed, that he ' See SS. Jaion and Sosipater, June 25. Jnlr I»0 6 ". Hermagoras.

…was one of the original disciples of Our Blessed Lord; but either that he had long been a Christian, or that he was an old man. Jason, who, in the Roman Martyrology, is confounded with him, was a Thessalonian, who entertained SS. Paul and Silas; and was, in consequence, attacked by the Jewish mob. " The Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city in an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, ‘ These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; whom Jason hath received: and these, contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.' And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And when they had taken security of Jason and of the others, they let them go.”

It is probably the fact of both Mnason and Jason having lodged S. Paul, the former in Jerusalem, the latter in Thessalonia, that led to the strange confusion between them, which has crept into the Roman Martyrology.

Feast days

Feast: July 12

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Mnason's story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on July 12
St. Hermagoras

St. Hermagoras

July 12 · Bishop
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Sts. Paulinus and…

July 12 · Bishop, Martyrs
St. Veronica

St. Veronica

July 12 · Feast
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.