Three Historical Cross Dressers: Part 3, Marina the Monk

This final installment will deal with a young woman who was the total opposite of the other female cross dressers that I have written about who were both "Amazons" and in the case of Catalina de Erauso sometimes exhibited unsavory conduct.

Few would believe that there was a Christian saint who was a cross dresser, but Mariam who was later called St. Marina the Monk was such. There is no exact date, but St. Marina was born in either the 5^th or 6^th century in northern Lebanon. St. Marina was the daughter of a wealthy Christian gentleman. Her mother died when she was a little girl leaving her with a father whom she developed a very close and loving bond. Ancient and medieval Christians had a very different out look about the world than most modern, particularly western Christians do. Unlike us, they thought vertically, not horizontally. In other words, their focus was on their religious faith and God, whereas our view is very much tied to the here and now and our existence on this earth. Because of this outlook, Mariam’s father decided that once he had found a suitable husband for his daughter, he would retire to a monastery to become a monk. Mariam was also very pious just like her father and was not interested in marriage, wanting to live the contemplative and ascetic life of prayer and fasting. She cut her hair like a boy. Her father seeing that she was not going to be swayed took her with him to the Monastery of Qannoubine in Lebanon. Other versions of the story of Mariam and her father say that they were admitted to a monastery near Alexandria, Egypt.

Mariam took the name of Marinus and resided with her father in the same cell in the monastery. Father and daughter lived there together in prayer and contemplation for the next ten years or so until her father died at an old age. After his death she continued to live the way she had with none of the other occupants of the monastery suspecting that she was really a female. It was noted by some that her voice was rather high pitched for a man, but it was just thought that was it was because of her fasting and extreme devout living.

One day the monastery’s superior sent Marinus and some other monks to the nearest town on some business where they lodged at an inn. There are about three versions of the story about what happened there. One version goes that the inn keeper had a flirtatious and immoral daughter who had been having a sexual liaison with a soldier. She discovered that she was pregnant and after seeing Marinus and maybe liking “him” better than the soldier, did what some women have always done when they were caught off guard by a pregnancy: create a fiction and claim that a guy they like best is the baby’s father. A second version of the story says that the girl made advances toward Marinus, and “he” rejected her. Later when she discovered that she was pregnant, she falsely accused Marinus of seducing her.

Sometime later, the inn keeper went to the monastery and told the superior what his daughter said that Marinus had done. He raged and accused all the monks of being hypocrites. Of course, the superior and the others were shocked. The superior tried to pacify the angry man and then sent him on his way. Then the superior called for Marinus and demanded to know if the accusations against “him” were true. It is not known why Marinus admitted to having an illicit relationship with the inn keeper’s daughter and did not reveal that she was a woman, but my guess is that she was looking down the road into the future. What was going to happen to the baby born out of wedlock? It was likely that the child would have a very difficult time because in eastern societies then as now and in Christian societies up until the last few generations illegitimacy was frowned upon. The woman who was unmarried and her child were usually treated as outcasts. Perhaps Marinus felt she had a moral and humane responsibility to accept the child. She also may have felt as a highly devout Christian that she should not fight against the will of God and should accept whatever hardship and ridicule that might come her way. Maybe she felt that this experience might be God’s way of teaching her a great lesson that would make her an even better person.

The superior listened to Marinus’ confession and then banished her from the monastery. Marinus was now homeless. One version of her story says that she hung around outside the monastery’s gates begging. Some of the monks would sneak food out to her. A second version goes that she lived near some shepherds who felt sorry for her and would share their food and milk with her.

The baby that the inn keeper’s daughter had given birth to was a little boy. The inn keeper brought him to Marinus one day during her exile, dropped off the infant, and left them without looking back.

Some of the monks at the monastery begged the superior to allow Marinus to come back to live with them. They wanted him to show Marinus some mercy and forgiveness. He finally gave in and permitted Marinus to move back inside and to bring her child too. She had been homeless for four years. The superior did not make it easy for Marinus though. Marinus had to do penance for her sins by working very hard and taking on many tasks around the monastery. Marinus continued to grow in her faith. Being raised in the monastery, her son even grew up to be a monk.

St. Marinus died some time later, by some accounts in 508. When her body was being prepared for burial it was discovered that she was a woman. Shocked and guilty over the way Marinus had been treated, the superior and other monks prayed over her body and asked God’s forgiveness. One legend says that the bells of the monastery rang out on their own when Marinus died.

What happened to the inn keeper and his daughter, you might ask. Did they get what was coming to them? One story says that the superior sent for the inn keeper to tell him that Marinus could not have corrupted his daughter because Marinus was actually a woman. When the inn keeper learned this he came to the monastery and expressed his deep remorse for his accusations and actions. His daughter was said to feel so much guilt that for the rest of her days she would visit Marinus’ tomb where she would weep and pray for forgiveness. Despite their bad behavior, the inn keeper and his daughter was very different from many people now who blame the victims they had a hand in victimizing and who never show any remorse for their wrong deeds. But the characters who had a part in the life of St. Marina lived in an age that is very alien to our own.

There is an interesting story about what happened to the village where the inn was located in which all of St. Marina’s troubles began. Tourza is the name of the village in northern Lebanon where the inn keeper and his daughter lived. Legend has it that Tourza remained impoverished and was destroyed by several earthquakes over the centuries because of the sins of the inn keeper and his daughter.

St. Marina the Monk is venerated as a saint in the Maronite Church of Lebanon, the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Coptic Churches.

Some sources say that the story of St. Marina may only be a legend. After all, cross dressing devout Christians is a little out in left field, but in life the highly unusual sometimes takes place. I would like to think the story is true with its emphasis on the love of a father and his daughter and on the daughter who kept her head up patiently through so much suffering and humiliation.

Links about St. Marina the Monk:

Qannoubin Valley
St. Marina the Monk Gallery