Wednesday 22 November 2023

Today Is... Feast Day Of Saint Marina the Monk

As the child of wealthy parents, Marina didn't want for anything but after her mother died, her very devout Christian father raised her and as she approached marriageable age, her father intended to find her a husband and then retire to the Monastery of Qannoubine in the Kadisha Valley of Lebanon.
When she learned of his plan she asked why can't she live as a monk with him and he explained as monks are men it literally took balls to become a monk and she didn't own a pair of them so she shaved her head, changed into men's clothes and called herself Marinos and he was like all whatever, Monks wear baggy robes and aren't in the habit of poking about at each other's genitals so took her with him to the monastery.
The other monks never suspected her and attributed her soft voice to long periods of prayer so she got away with it until her father died and she was given more responsibility by the Abbot such as attending business with other monasteries in the area.
One day, the Abbot sent her to attend to some business in another region but as the journey was long, she was to spend the night at an inn.
That night, the only other lodger was a soldier of the eastern Roman front who disappeared into the room of the inn keeper's daughter, seduced her several times from what she could hear through the thin walls, and as neither of them used protection because it hadn't been invented yet, instructing her to say that if she
got pregnant, then to blame the cute young smooth-faced monk monk down the hall.
As it turns out she was and she did blame Marina and the Abbot banished her from the Monastery although she could have explained that anatomically it couldn't have been her but her mouth, unlike the innkeepers daughters legs, stayed firmly shut.
The other monks convinced the Abbot to allow her to return as long as she did all the cooking, cleaning and carrying water in addition to regular monastic duties which she did until she became ill and died.  
The Abbot ordered that hrr body be cleaned and her clothes changed for the burial and it was while they were undressing her that they made a discovery which made them feel like dicks, or rather not feeling one, which alerted them that she was a woman, so no penis and therefore no pregnancy.
She is now the unofficial patron saint of the LBGT community.

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