The Holy Victorious Martyr Marina – 17 July
Saint Marina was from a village in
Pisidia, the daughter and only child of a certain Aidesios, a pagan
priest, and lived in the reign of Emperor Claudius II. When she was
twelve, her mother died and she was given into the charge of another
woman and she asked of God to be granted the faith of the Christians,
which was being taught in the village by some of them at that time. When
she became fifteen, in 270, she had a desire to die as a martyr for the
love of Christ. With one occasion, the governor Olymbrius sent people
to arrest her and cast her into prison. After several days had passed,
she was fetched from the prison and appeared in court before him. But
when he saw her, he was astonished at her beauty.
He asked her name and her circumstances
and she replied: “I’m called Marina; I was born and bred in Pisidia; and
I call upon the name of my Lord, Jesus Christ”. Since she wouldn’t
consent to deny Christ, the governor ordered that she be stretched out
on the ground and beaten mercilessly with rods.
She was brought to a second examination
and, because of her persistence in the Christian faith, was burned with
lighted candles and placed head-down in a vat full of water. Since she
remainesd unharmed, she attracted many unbelievers to faith in Christ
who were beheaded and won crowns for their efforts. The governor then
became angry and struck off the saint’s head. Her synaxis is held in the
church of Saint Minas.
(Saint Nikodimos, Συναξαριστής τ. ΣΤ΄-Ιούλιος, Αύγουστος, New Skete, Holy Mountain, pp. 80-2)
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