Marina was born in present day Lebanon, in the fifth century. She was the only child of her parents, and her mother died when she was still a young girl. Her father refused to remarry, and instead raised her himself until she was a teenager. At that point, he hoped to find her a husband and then retire to live the life of a monk.

Marina, however, rejected this plan, saying: “Why would you save your own soul at the cost of destroying mine?” Instead, she shaved off her hair and exchanged her clothing for men’s clothes. When her father saw her determination, he relented. Selling all of their possessions, they went together to the monastic settlement in the Qadisha Valley, where he introduced her as his son “Marinos”.

After ten years of living the monastic life together, the father died. Marinos continued to live at the monastery without revealing his identity to anyone. In time, however, a local girl who had become pregnant accused Marinos of fathering her child. Rather than respond to this accusation with the obvious denial, Marinos accepted responsibility rather than reveal his secret or subject the girl to further reproach. When the child was born, the infant was given to Marinos to raise at the monastery, and he accepted the boy as though he were truly his own son, and bore patiently all of the scorn and abuse that the other monks heaped upon him for his alleged violation of his monastic vows.

After many years Marinos also died, and it was only when the monks went to prepare the body for burial that they discovered it was actually the body of a woman, who had obviously been innocent of the accusation of having fathered a child. The monks and villagers lamented their false accusation and judgment, and after their repentance many miracles were performed at Marina’s tomb.

While some aspects of this story may be legendary, there are numerous accounts in early Christianity of women disguising themselves as men and entering male monasteries, and this is one of the examples that is considered to be the most historically reliable.

Marina/Marinos is particularly venerated today in Lebanon, Cyprus, and Italy, usually under the name of “Marina the Monk”.