By Bishop Gregorios of Mesaoria
Our Church celebrates the memory of Saint Marina the Virgin-Martyr and Vanquisher of Demons today, on July 17.
Saint Marina was born in Antioch in Pisidia (southern Asia Minor) around the year 270 AD. Her mother died in childbirth and her father, who was a pagan priest, gave her into the care of a Christian nursemaid to raise her.
This woman offered love to Saint Marina and raised her in the Orthodox faith. She revealed to her father that she had become Christian when she was 15 years old. Upon learning that his daughter had become a Christian, her father disowned her. Governor Olybrios learnt that Marina was converted to Christianity, and ordered to arrest her and bring her to him.
Governor Olybrios tried to persuade her to renounce the Christian faith, sacrifice to the pagan gods, and become his wife, the saint refused his offers and replied that she was devoted to spreading the Holy Gospel and offering to her fellow human beings. She was cruelly tortured while, with the power of the Savior Christ and her patience, she defeated the devil himself, who, in the shape of a dragon, attacked her.
This incident is depicted, both in the icon of Saint Marina and in the apolytikion dedicated to her memory, which says that Saint Marina defeated the invisible enemy.
Saint Marina the Great Martyr was beheaded, thus earning the aureole of martyrdom and chastity.
SOURCE: Church of Cyprus
