Marina the Monk

Saint Marina the Monk, also called Marinos the Monk, is one of the saints who, according to the traditional account, lived as monks in male guise. She is believed to have lived in the fifth century (some sources say the sixth) in the Byzantine East, and her homeland is most often placed in present-⁠day Lebanon. The details of her life vary from source to source, and the earliest account, probably written between 525 and 650, survives in several manuscripts, including one of the tenth century.

According to the story, Marina was the daughter of wealthy Christian parents and was born in Qalamoun, near Tripoli. Her mother died early, and her father, Eugenius, raised her in the faith. When she neared marriageable age, Eugenius meant to find her a husband and retire to the monastery of Qannoubine in the Kadisha Valley. Learning of the plan, Marina asked why he wished to save his own soul and destroy hers. Her father answered that he did not know what to do with her, since she was a woman, and she replied that they would both live as monks. She cut her hair, put on men's clothes and took the name Marinos. Eugenius, seeing her resolve, gave his goods to the poor and went with her to the Kadisha Valley, where they shared a cell. The other monks put her soft voice down to long prayer, or took the new brother to be a eunuch. After ten years of prayer and fasting Eugenius died, and Marinos became still more strict in her labour, keeping her secret.

One day the abbot sent four monks, Marinos among them, on monastery business. The road was long, and they spent the night at an inn, where a soldier of the Byzantine army was also staying. He seduced the innkeeper's daughter and told her to say, if she conceived, that the young monk, Father Marinos, was to blame. She did so, and the innkeeper came in anger to the abbot. The abbot calmed him and sharply rebuked Marinos. Marinos fell to her knees, wept and, falsely, confessed the sin and asked forgiveness, preferring to be seen as a sinful man than as an honourable woman. The abbot drove her from the monastery, and Marinos remained for years as a beggar at the gate. When the child was born he was given to her; she raised him on sheep's milk brought by the shepherds and stayed beside the monastery for ten years. At last the monks persuaded the abbot to take her back; he agreed but imposed heavy penances: labour in the kitchen, cleaning and carrying water, besides the usual monastic duties and the care of the child.

At the age of forty Marinos fell ill and died after three days. When the monks washed and clothed the body they discovered she was a woman, and were deeply distressed. The abbot came, wept bitterly over the wrong done, and called the innkeeper, who also wept for the injustice. During the funeral prayers a monk blind in one eye is said to have regained his sight by touching the body. It is also told that God allowed a demon to torment the innkeeper's daughter and the soldier, who came to the grave and confessed their sin before all and asked forgiveness.

The saint is venerated in the Orthodox Churches, including the Coptic Orthodox Church; the Copts hold that her body is kept uncorrupted in a church of Saint Mary and is shown on her feast, on 15 Mesra. She is also honoured among the Druze, under the name Al-⁠Sitt Sha'wani. The Slavic tradition calls her Mary of Bithynia and commemorates her on 12 February (Old Style). The synaxaria also mention her on 18 June and 17 July.