Historical Context
Marina lived in what is now modern-day Pisidia in Turkey. According to a 9th-century martyrology she suffered at Antioch in Pisidia around the year 304, during the Diocletianic Persecution.
Sources name her father as a pagan priest (called Aedesius in one Western account). Her mother died when she was an infant, leaving her in the care of a wet nurse who, in one account, was later sent to work as a shepherdess; for this reason Marina herself is sometimes depicted as a shepherdess.
Martyrdom
The synaxarion relates that the imperial governor — named Olymbrios in one account — was struck by Marina's beauty and sought to marry her, but she openly confessed herself a Christian. When she refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods, she was subjected to cruel tortures: she was beaten with rods or clubs, her body was raked with tridents or iron combs, nails were driven into her, and she was burned with fire.
One account relates that she was plunged into a cauldron or barrel of boiling water and came out unharmed, praising God. By tradition, after these torments her body was healed of its wounds and a snow-white dove descended with a golden crown. According to the same account, astonished onlookers declared themselves Christians and were executed, and on that day 15,000 people were beheaded together with Marina; this is placed in the year 304.
Miracles & Traditions
Traditional Accounts: The synaxarion relates that Satan appeared to Marina in prison in the form of a serpent or dragon and devoured her, but that she prayed within the creature and made the Sign of the Cross, which tore the dragon apart. Another account relates that she entered into single combat with Satan, seizing a copper hammer that lay in the dungeon and striking him on the head while holding him by the horns.
Iconography reflects these traditions differently by region: Western images typically depict Margaret emerging from, or standing above, a dragon, while Eastern Byzantine iconography tends to focus on her battle with the demon in her cell, depicting her grasping him and swinging a copper hammer at his face.
Relics & Shrines
According to one tradition, the relics of the Great Martyr Marina were kept in the Panteponteia monastery until the sacking of Constantinople by Western crusaders in 1204. Other sources place them in Antioch until the year 908, from where they were transferred to Italy.
Sources relate that her relics are now in Athens, in a church dedicated to the holy Virgin Martyr, and that her venerable hand was transferred to the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos.
Veneration
In the East she is celebrated as the Great Martyr Marina; in the West she is known as Margaret of Antioch. She is commemorated on July 17 in the Eastern Orthodox Church (with July 20 observed in Western Christianity, and Epip 23 and Hathor 23 in the Coptic Orthodox Church).
