Marinus of Constantinople

The Venerable Marinus of Constantinople (around 930), in the world Vaan, was the son of Saint Mary the Younger of Thrace. He rose in the army to the rank of drungarios and married, but was not exalted in mind; he imitated his mother: gentle, peaceable, just, cheerful, brave and strong, yet braver in soul. He always left the spoil of war to his comrades, and so was loved by all. Beside him laboured for the Lord his friend Theodore, a turmarch, with whom he was bound under the same yoke of Christ.

Mercy and prayer

Above all he loved mercy, following his mother. Every day he read the whole Psalter, and in the evening, after the service, the paraklesis to the Mother of God with forty canons, by heart, omitting nothing of his rule.

His end

Sick with a bowel complaint, he set out for Constantinople for a remedy. On the same day his brother Symeon arrived there from Mount Kimina. They met unexpectedly at the door of the house where Vaan was to lodge, gave thanks to God, and Symeon tonsured him a monk with the name Marinus. He died on the second day of June and was buried in the monastery of the Mother of God "Ta Korones", near the cisterns of Aspar. His memory is kept on 15 June, in the new style, which is 2 June in the old style. His name is not in today's Menologion of the Russian Church.