Gender Fluid Monks

The President of the United States recently declared that there are only two genders, which are assigned at conception, by biology. This declaration is inspired by conservative Christians who see modern society’s multiple genders as a threat to family values. They presume that Christians in the past understood there were only two genders, and acted accordingly. In that spirit, I offer the history of Marina.

Marina was born in what is now Lebanon in the 400s. She was raised and educated by her Christian father. When she was old enough to get married, he declared he would sell all his wealth and become a monk, leaving her to become a wife. She objected -  he wanted to save his soul, while hers would be lost in an unwanted marriage. The father agreed to help her pass as a man so she could enter the same monastery in the desert. They cut her hair, and she put on men’s clothing. The ruse worked, she was introduced as Marinus, a brother. She lived with her father in a cave. When anyone inquired about her fair features, they were told she was a eunuch. 

Ten years later, her father died. “Marinus” continued to live as a brother. One day, he and two other brothers were sent on an errand which was more than a day’s journey away. They stayed at an inn. Here, there are various versions of what happens next. One of the guests sleeps with the innkeeper’s daughter, or she’s already pregnant when “Marinus” arrives. She decides to claim that “Marinus” fathered her child when it is born later. The Innkeeper tells the Abbot, who kicks “Marinus” out of the monastery, and the baby is brought to “Marinus” to care for. 

Marina, who could have simply revealed she was a woman, keeps quiet. She begs forgiveness for her supposed lapse in fathering the child. She raises the child, living outside the monastery walls, still living frugally. The brothers inside see her diligence and devotion to the faith. They pester the Abbot to let “Marinus” back in. After three years, the Abbot relents, and “Marinus” returns to the monastery with the child. The Abbot gives “Marinus” especially difficult chores to punish the indiscretion, which the monk accepts without protest.

A few years later, Marina dies. The monks must undress “Marinus” for burial, and they finally discover the truth. Their brother has been a sister all along, and could never have fathered a child. The Abbot is stricken with remorse over his ill treatment of her. The Innkeeper and daughter come to her grave to repent. Her secret life was considered a model of humility and fortitude, accepting her trials as opportunities to be humble and devoted to God.

What do you think? What does this story say to you about the definition of gender? Is it really as simple as the genitals we are born with? What does this story suggest about humility? About the ancient monastic acceptance of hardship as a way to self-negation and closeness to God? Is that the only way? Gender is not simple, neither is faith. Both are immensely rich, precisely because they do not lend themselves to narrow definitions. Peace.

Marina’s feast day is June 18^th in the Western Calendar, February 12^th in the East. 

-Rev. Stephen Milton, Lawrence Park Community Church, Toronto

Sources: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2017/02/12/100508-venerable-mary-who-was-called-marinus-and-her-father-venerable-e

Laura Swan, The Forgotten Desert Mothers, (New York, 2001), 89-90.

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