Venerable Maria

Life

Maria was a girl of manly courage. After her mother's death her father desired to become a monk. But Maria did not want to be separated from her father, so by agreement both set off to a men's monastery, Maria with shorn hair and in men's clothing, as a youth. The father died, and Maria became a monk as a male and received the name Marinus. Near the monastery there was an inn, and the innkeeper's daughter looked upon the supposed monk Marinus, and after unsuccessful wooing accused Marinus of unlawful relations with her, since she had conceived by someone else and borne a son. Maria did not defend herself and was expelled with disgrace from the monastery. With another's child in her arms she lived in the monastery grove for three years enduring both hunger and cold and every torment and deprivation. Meanwhile the innkeeper's daughter went mad, and soon after Maria died. Only after death was it learned that "the monk Marinus" had been female. The mad innkeeper's daughter, as soon as she touched the relics of Saint Maria, was healed, and then confessed her terrible sin. Saint Maria reposed and departed to immortal joy in the year 508.