1. Saint Marina

Saint Marina was a little girl who loved Christ with all the power of her heart. She was born in 270 A.D. in a big city of Asia Minor, called Antioch. The Emperor in Rome and the whole world was then Claudius Caesar. 

Her father was called Aidesius and was a priest of idols. She never knew her mother, because she died a few days after her birth. A good and virtuous woman, who was secretly a Christian, saw the orphaned baby and took pity on it. With her father's permission, she took the baby to her house to breastfeed and raise her, so she would not die of starvation. She loved her as her own baby, that's why she raised her with her own children with much love and affection. And Marina loved her like her own mummy, too.

Growing up close to this wonderful foster mother, Marina became a very sweet, prudent, humble and polite girl. Her foster mother taught her the true faith in Christ and the wonderful teachings of love, which she was trying with great care to apply. She loved all people, but more, the poor, the sick, the widows and the orphans. Wherever she was going, she was spreading the fragrance of love and kindness everywhere, that’s why everyone loved her as their own child. She was very beautiful and modest. She was an earthly angel, who received a lot of love from her heavenly Father, God and then was spreading it generously to all people!

The years passed quickly and Marina became a fifteen-year-old girl. Her pagan father then decided to celebrate his daughter's birthday with religious ceremonies and sacrifices to the false gods, and especially to the goddess Aphrodite, in whose temple he was a priest.

Marina understood that it was time to confess her faith and love of Jesus Christ before all the people and, if necessary, to suffer the first tortures for His sake. So, when her father ordered her to cense at the altar of the goddess Aphrodite, to thank her, for becoming a mature and beautiful girl, she emphatically refused. With courage, she confesses her faith and love to the one true God and our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Her father cannot hold back his fury and anger. Like a raging bull he rushes upon her to hurt her. Fortunately, some people manage to take her from his hands and hide her.

Almost one year passed by quietly for Marina. With an even stronger faith and will for missionary work, she was spending her days in prayer and works of love. Without fear, she was speaking everywhere about her beloved Jesus and the wonderful Christian teachings. Crowds of idolaters were abandoning the idols and were believing in the one true God.

One day, the district commander Olymbrios saw her, while she was walking carefreely on the street. He was dazzled by her beauty and decided to make her his wife. However, he learned from her father, that she had become a Christian and that she had been devoted to the love of Christ. In the beginning, he tries to persuade her with sweet words to deny Christ and accept his proposal. He even threatens her with great tortures in order to break her morale. But he quickly verifies Marina's steady and unwavering love for Christ, that's why he orders her tortures to begin.

In the beginning, they beat her with rods that had knots on them to make the pain of the blows even more intense. Then they hang her by the hair from a tree and with sharp iron claws, they tear her tender body. The youthful body of Saint Marina is immediately covered with wounds. Her flesh is torn and her blood flows abundantly from her pure body. The pain is unbearable. With heroic patience Marina beseeches in her prayer to her beloved Jesus to help her to endure until the end.

After these terrible tortures, they throw her like a dog into a horrible prison to die there helpless. Marina, in spite of the terrible pains throughout her body, kneels and prays to her beloved Jesus. She beseeches Him to forgive all those who have tortured her and to enlighten them, so that they may also know, the one true God.

Satan, having failed through so many tortures to make her afraid and return to worshipping the idols, now decides to scare her personally. At first, he appears as a terrible dragon, who wants to swallow her. But when he sees that she is not afraid at all, but continues her prayer unshaken, he takes another frightening form. He appears with two large horns on his head and rushes towards her.

Our Saint, without fear at all, grabs him immediately by the horns, and with a hammer which she found in a corner of the prison, began to beat him on the head. Satan, unable to react or to flee, was receiving her blows with woeful screams of pain and fear. The more he was beaten by Marina, the shorter and smaller he was becoming, until he became so tiny that he disappeared, leaving behind him terrible cries of defeat and an awful stench. Marina had succeeded, with the power and help of God, to wound and humiliate the damned demon.

After this triumph of our Saint, a glowing heavenly light shone throughout the dark prison, and a huge bright Cross appeared in front of her, starting from the ground and reaching up to the sky. A pure white dove was flying above the Cross. Immediately, her wounds were healed, the pains stopped and her face shone like the sun.

That's how the soldiers found her, when the next day they took her out of the prison and brought her back to court and to Olymbrios again. Crowds of people looked at our holy Saint with admiration and began to believe in Christ and to abandon the idols. This, of course, made Olymbrios even more angry and he ordered new tortures.

They hung her naked from a tree and began to burn her entire body with blazing torches, causing her unbearable pains. After that they threw her into a huge cauldron of boiling water. Then a great earthquake took place and a huge bright Cross formed above the cauldron, while a pure white dove appeared holding in its beak a beautiful crown and placed it on Marina's head. Then all the people saw our Saint rising up from the cauldron, bathed in light and her face shining brighter than the sun!

Thousands of idolaters believed in Christ that day and fifteen thousand were slaughtered within a few days for their love for God! When Olymbrios saw that as long as Marina was alive, all the people in the city would become Christians, he decided to kill her. He ordered his soldiers to take her to the place of execution and there to decapitate her.

At the moment when Marina was praying for the last time, a great earthquake took place. The executioner was terrified and the sword fell from his hands. Our Saint gave courage to the executioner, so that he could take the sword in his hands again and carry out the command he received. With sadness in his heart, the executioner obeyed the order of the servant of God. Marina lifted up her head to heaven and smiled sweetly at her beloved King Jesus, Whom she had loved even more than her life.

As soon as the executioner's sword fell powerfully on to the sanctified head of Saint Marina, a heavenly fragrance spread everywhere. Marina's temporary life had just ended heroically and bravely, and her beloved Jesus held the sanctified soul of His sweet daughter tenderly in His embrace!

For Marina, the everlasting joy and happiness had just begun in the heavenly kingdom of God the Father. It was July 17, 286 AD. and the beautiful young Marina was only 16 years old.