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Σάββατο 12 Μαΐου 2012
On the mountain Lang, to the monastery of saints Marina. Albania.
THE HOLY FEMALE MARTYR MARINA
Marina was
born in Pisidian, Antioch of pagan parents. At the age of twelve Marina learned
about the Lord Jesus Christ; how He became incarnate of the All-Pure Virgin,
how He worked many miracles, how He suffered death on the Cross and gloriously
resurrected. Her young heart became inflamed with love for the Lord and she
vowed that she would never marry and further desired in her soul to suffer for
Christ and to be baptized in the blood of martyrdom. Her father hated her
because of her faith and did not consider her as his daughter. The imperial
deputy Olymbrius, learning from Marina that she was a Christian, first wished
that she would become his wife. When Marina rejected that he ordered her to bow
down before the idols and to that St. Marina replied: "I will not bow down
nor offer sacrifice to the breathless and dead idols who do not recognize
themselves nor do they know that we honor or dishonor them. I will not give
them that honor which belongs only to my Creator." Then Olymbrius
subjected Marina to harsh torture and threw her into prison completely covered
with wounds and blood. While in prison Marina prayed to God and, after prayer,
the devil appeared to her under the guise of a horrible serpent which entwined
itself around her head. When she made the sign of the cross the serpent burst
and vanished. Then she was engulfed with a heavenly light and it seemed to her
that the walls of the prison vanished together with the roof and a radiant and
towering cross appeared and atop the cross a white dove, from which a voice
came saying: "Rejoice Marina, rational [discerning] dove of Christ,
daughter of Zion in the highest, for your day of rejoicing has arrived."
Marina was healed from all her wounds and pains by the power of God. The
demented judge tortured her the following day, both in fire and in water, but
Marina endured all as though she were in another body. Finally he condemned her
to be beheaded. Before her death the Lord Jesus appeared to her with angels.
She was beheaded during the reign of Diocletian but in soul and power she remained
alive in the heavens and on earth. A hand of St. Marina reposes in the
Monastery of Vatopedi on Mt. Athos. However, atop Mt. Langa in Albania
overlooking Lake Ohrid, there is a monastery dedicated to St. Marina with a
portion of her miraculous relics. Countless miracles have occurred and still
occur in this monastery, whose witnesses are not only Christians but many
Muslims as well. So much did the Turks have respect for this holy place that
they never dared disturb either this holy place or the property of this
monastery. At one time a Turk was the guardian of the monastery.
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