In the south lived a wealthy farmer whose wife had left him with an only daughter named Marina. As she became grown, the father said, “I’ve lived long in the world, so I want to enter a monastery and try to ask God to accept my remorse. I will give my wealth to you, and will marry you.”
She answered, “Do you want to rescue your soul, but ruin mine?” The father asked what she yearned for. “I want,” she answered, “you to cut my hair in the manner of men and that you give me men’s clothes. Then I’ll follow you as your son into the monastery.”
The father thanked God, and fulfilled her request. The two then entered the monastery where they were well accepted and they submitted themselves in every detail to the rules. After a few years, Marina’s father died, but she remained in the monastery and led a godly life. In view of the following, “Brother Marinus” held to soft speaking, friendliness, obedience and readiness to serve. He was often sent out with the other monks to gain the necessities for the monastery.
The devil, angered over the feminine monk’s pious change, tried to corrupt her. Near the monastery lived a farmer who was a good friend of the abbot, and during their travels the monks therefore often stayed with him. The farmer’s daughter had become pregnant by a knight. When she had given birth to the child, the farmer tried to find out who the father was. However, because she listened to the whisperings of the devil, she named the monk Marinus.
The farmer went to the abbot and charged the brother. When called before the abbot to testify, the brother fell before the abbot and admitted that he had sinned. The abbot sentenced him to a severe penalty and drove him from the monastery. He was directed to a house near the monastery where he was subjected to acts of penance. He lived from charity and alms that the monks allowed him and was required to take in and care for the child of the farmer’s daughter.
After three years, at the request of the monks, he was again accepted back into the monastery, but there he was required to serve the other monks. All of this, he did with the greatest care because to him it was more important to please God than humanity.
But now, God wished that the light that had been so long hidden be made public. Marinus became ill and one day, as the brothers sang in the church, he was not there. The abbot had him looked in upon to see if he lacked for something. Soon, the messenger returned and told of his death. The abbot, who felt that the dead one had not done sufficient penance, ordered that the body be buried far from the other monks.
But as they disrobed the body, they discovered that Marinus was a woman. This unknown event moved everyone to tears. The abbot ran crying to the lifeless body and berated himself for having martyred the wife of God. But a voice from heaven granted him forgiveness because he had acted unknowingly.
Not long thereafter, the woman who had borne false witness against Marina was taken by the devil so that she had to be bound. She was led to the grave of God’s handmaid, where the devil was forced to admit that he had led the woman to lie. After seven days, in answer to the prayers of the wife of God, she was freed of the unclean spirit through the mercy of he who eternally repays evil with good.