Saint Marinus the Martyr, whose feast day is celebrated on March 30 in Orthodox Churches that follow the Patristic calendar, should be distinguished from the saint of the same name, Marinus of Caesarea, as well as from Saint Marinus of Rimini, the patron and hagiographic founder of the city-state of San Marino, whose feasts are observed in August and September, respectively. The Greek equivalent of the name “Marinus” is “Pelagius.” As is the case with most saints’ names, the Church has preserved it without translation.
Martyr Marinus
On the penultimate day of spring, the Church also commemorates Alexius, the Man of God, and Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland. Both saints lived in the fifth century and became culturally influential figures in Christian civilization. On this day, the Church also celebrates the memory of the great Russian saint Macarius of Kalyazin (1402–1483), whose name is associated with the Holy Trinity Monastery of the same name, flooded in 1939 during the creation of the Uglich Reservoir, symbolized by the famous Kalyazin Bell Tower, which rises uniquely above the waters of the man-made sea. Living in the shadow of these great saints has led to the near-total obscurity of the holy martyr Marinus, about whose life very little is known to begin with. Neither the date nor the place of his martyrdom is known; only the circumstances are shortly described.
During a pagan ceremony, Saint Marinus overturned the altar and trampled the idols, after which he declared himself a Christian. He was seized by the crowd and flogged. Afterward, he was hung up and beaten. They threw him to the ground and dragged him by his hair. The saint’s teeth were knocked out. Seeking to give the proceedings a semblance of legality, the pagan police brought him before a court. Ultimately, for refusing to renounce his faith and offer a sacrifice to the gods, Saint Marinus was beheaded.
The early Church forbade Christians from seeking martyrdom on their own initiative. This prohibition is preserved in the relevant canons. The very existence of such canons—as with any rules in early ecclesiastical law—suggests that these rules were frequently violated. Many Christians sought martyrdom but were unable to withstand torture or persuasion; very few were honored as saints. The Church is a community of interpreters. The feat of any saint requires an appropriate hermeneutic, that is, a theological interpretation. There is sometimes a certain commonality among different saints that allows us to interpret the essence of the feat of one saint, who is almost unknown, through the clearer circumstances of the deeds of another saint, about whom a little more is known.
The brief details of Saint Marinus’ martyrdom that we know of, link her to an ancient female martyr from Carthaginian Africa, bearing the rare name of Salsa. The site of her martyrdom was the modern Algerian city of Tipaza. The account of the martyr’s suffering dates back to the end of the fourth century. This was the time of the early ministry of the great Father of the Church of that era, Saint Augustine, who was also from Carthage. Saint Salsa was a fourteen-year-old child.
Together with her parents, she found herself at a pagan festival in honor of the serpent deity Python, whose temple was located on a rocky promontory jutting out into the sea. By chance, she was left alone before the idol when the pagans withdrew to their afterfeast. She threw the idol to the ground, and the pieces that broke off she cast into the sea. Upon discovering the girl, the pagans killed her and threw her body off the cliff. Like the biblical prophet Jonah, the saint’s remains were found by fishermen on the third day and handed over to local Christians.
The festivals honoring the serpent deity were held in the spring, and the saint’s martyrdom took place on May 15 (2). The veneration of Saint Salsa, now forgotten, once spread as far as Spain, which was apparently linked to the Orthodox Christians of Carthage. The latter fled Carthage after the invasion of the Vandals, who professed aggressive Arian heresy and occupied Roman Africa from the 30s of the fifth century. Just as St. Augustine’s disciples immediately transferred their teacher’s relics, along with his library, to Italy after his death, Christians may well have transferred the relics of St. Salsa to Spain. The translation likely explains the additional feast days in her honor—in October and August, in addition to the one in May.
The name Marinus means “of the sea.” The pagans threw Saint Salsa into the sea. This is a mere coincidence. God brought us into being from nothingness, this embodiment of any coincidence. The God of the Bible, the Lord of all coincidences, gives us the opportunity to interpret the deeds of Saint Marin based on the hagiography of Saint Salsa. Children do not live by the canons. It is quite possible that Saint Marinus was also very young, perhaps a child. This is reflected in his courageous and childlike, fearless act of destroying the idol. “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these,” the Lord declared in the Gospel (Matthew 19:14). The holy martyrs Marinus and Salsa became a paradoxical, asymmetrical, anarchic, and tragic—yet literal and vivid—embodiment of these words.