01 — Foundations
The ground on which the figure of St. Marina the Great Martyr (Margaret of Antioch) stands — a ground that is, uniquely among the great martyrs, almost entirely legendary. These files set out the world the Passio assigns her: Antioch, the shepherd-girl who is daughter of the pagan priest Aedesius and is raised by a Christian nurse after her mother’s death; and then, against that legendary setting, the honest historical core — Marina’s absence from the earliest martyrologies, the late and fabulous character of her Passio, and the scholarly identification of the Eastern Marina with the Western Margaret as one cult under two names.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Great Martyr; virgin-martyr)
Marina belongs to the great company of virgin-martyrs — Thecla, Catherine, Barbara, Paraskevi — whose legends crystallized in the East from the third century onward and whose cults became among the most fervent in all of Christendom. But where some of these have at least a slender historical anchor, Marina’s record is legendary nearly through and through: she is unknown to the earliest calendars, her Passio is a fabulous romance, and her acta were among those the Gelasian tradition reserved. This section establishes that state of affairs honestly — both the story the Passio tells and the thinness of what can be known — so that everything in the collection that follows is read in its true light: the veneration of a beloved saint whose cult is firmer than her history.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Antioch and the Shepherd-Girl | The legendary setting: Antioch in the Passio, and the question of which Antioch (of Pisidia or of Syria); Marina as the daughter of the pagan priest Aedesius, motherless and raised by a Christian nurse, who keeps sheep and is catechized in secret — the narrative furniture of the virgin-martyr legend. |
| The Historical Core | The thin and contested record: Marina’s absence from the earliest martyrologies (the Syriac Breviarium, the Hieronymianum), the late and fabulous character of the Passio, and the scholarly consensus identifying the Eastern “Marina” and the Western “Margaret” as one cult — with the historicity, the dating, and the Antioch question set out as structured disputes. |
See Also
- The Passio and the Gelasian Decree — the legendary text and its ancient reservation, the documentary core of this section
- Marina and Margaret, East and West — the one saint, two names, established in full
- Reading the Marina Tradition — the method by which this legendary record is handled
- The Pre-Schism Church — the world of the persecutions to which the legend assigns her
References
- Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca (BHG), 3rd ed., ed. François Halkin. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1957.
- Delehaye, Hippolyte. Les légendes hagiographiques. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1905.
- Bibliotheca Sanctorum, vol. 8, “Marina,” and vol. 8, “Margherita di Antiochia.” Rome: Istituto Giovanni XXIII, 1966–1967.