Browsing Category Saint of the Day

The Rev’d Alban Butler (1710-1773) undertook to write a thoroughgoing account of saints for the Catholic Book Society (Derby, England: Thomas Richardson & Son). What resulted was a massive 12-volume (one per month) work: The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints: Compiled from Original Monuments and Other Authentic Records. The first edition was completed in 1759, and became a classic in hagiography, with later editions that included commentary, such as the 1842-1846 work, used here.
[Because subsequent research showed that certain individuals never existed or had actually been pagan deities cloaked in a Christian veneer, or because the miracles were simply too “out there” for a more modern audience, a severe gelding of Butler’s magisterial work took place in 1956. Alas.]
Out of each day’s multiple stories, I shall lift up those vignettes to riff on. Enjoy and (if it’s in your particular vernacular) be edified! – TK

The Crossdressing Saint Marina! (June 18)

Tim Koch Saint of the Day 0 Comment

Marina lived in the 700s in Bithynia (located in what is now northwestern Turkey). She pursued her calling from God by dressing up as a monk and and she became widely known as one of the “desert fathers.” Amazingly, she made it all the way to sainthood (before Joan of Arc), and her relics (bones after her death) were sent to places as far distant as Paris, Venice, and Constantinople (present-day Istanbul).

Nothing else is known about her other than she was “celebrated for her wonderful humility, meekness, and patience”–and goodness knows, it would take a miraculous amount of patience to navigate as a crossdresser in a world of sincerely sincere Christian men!

May Marina long be remembered and celebrated!