Saint Marina the Monk

Living as a man, they were falsely accused of fathering a child.

Saint Marina the Monk

When Marina, as a teenager, learned of their father’s plan to find them a husband, they shaved their head and began presenting as a male eunuch called Marinus. Their father supported them in this, and they entered a monastery together.

Many years later, after their father died, Marinus was sent on a mission that called for them to stay at an inn. That same night, a solider raped the inn keeper’s daughter and instructed her, if she became pregnant, to accuse Marinus.

Months passed, and she was and she did. When confronted, Marinus fell to the ground, confessing to have sinned without specifying exactly how. They were promptly banned from the monastery. In dire poverty, they raised the child as their own, nursing it with sheep’s milk.