Marina the Monk

Saint Marina the Monk was born in Al-Qalamoun near Tripoli, in what is now Lebanon, to a wealthy Christian family. After her mother died, Marina was raised in faith by her father, Eugenius. When he planned to place her in marriage and then withdraw to the Monastery of Qannoubine in the Kadisha Valley, Marina begged to follow him into the monastic life. Cutting her hair and taking the name Marinos, she entered the monastery with him, living in hidden humility and prayer. After her father’s death, Marina continued in strict asceticism. Falsely accused of fathering a child, she accepted blame without protest, choosing disgrace rather than revealing her identity. Cast out, she lived for years as a beggar at the monastery gate, raising the child in poverty, and later returned to serve the community in hard labor. Only at her death, around age forty, did the monks discover she was a woman, and repentance and wonder followed, with healings reported through her intercession. She is honored as a model of humility and patient endurance, and is patroness of several Italian towns including Santa Marina Salina and Polistena. Her feast day is July 17.