Week 2 of Lent Madness closes out in style and it’s only fitting that today’s matchup inspired not just blogs and devotions, but an entire theatrical production and movie trailer! 🎬🔥 Be sure to watch today’s Daily Saintly Showdown video for the full drama.
First, let’s talk about yesterday. The Allies showed up in force and it was the twin physician saints Cosmas and Damian narrowly defeating the original clergy power couple Priscilla and Aquila with 53.60% to 46.40%. The healers advance! 🩺✨
But now… the moment many of you have been waiting for.
Today’s showdown feels a bit like David vs Goliath. On one side, the warrior saint who led armies and inspired a nation. On the other, the quiet, disguised monk whose life of humility became one of the most fascinating stories in Christian tradition.
It’s Joan of Arc vs Marina the Monk. ⚔️🕊️
And of course the SEC is never biased… but we might gently encourage everyone to at least read Marina’s story before immediately running to vote. Trust us, it’s worth it.
So read the blogs, watch the video, learn the stories… and then cast your vote in today’s saintly showdown! 🏆
Joan of Arc
At first glance, Joan of Arc seems like an unlikely saint. She was a teenager, a farmer’s daughter, a military commander, and eventually a condemned heretic. And she did all that in just about two decades of life, while I hadn’t even picked a major in college yet at that point in my own journey. And yet, the Church remembers her not for fitting expectations or blazing a women-in-pants trail, but for faithfully following God’s call even when it led straight into danger.
Joan was born around 1412 in the small village of Domrémy in northeastern France, during the chaos of the Hundred Years’ War. France was fractured, occupied, and, frankly, demoralized by English forces. At around thirteen years old, Joan began to experience spiritual visions, including of Michael the Archangel. These visions instructed her to support the rightful French king, Charles VII, and to help drive the English out of France.
This was, to put it mildly, a tall order for a teenage girl with no formal education or military training. And yet, Joan persisted. After navigating various checkpoints of skepticism, she gained an audience with Charles and convinced him of her divine mission. Dressed in armor and carrying a banner rather than a sword, Joan accompanied French troops to the besieged city of Orléans. Against expectations, the siege was lifted, and French morale soared. Joan’s presence shifted the tide of the war, not through military genius, but through courage, faith, and an unshakable conviction that God was at work.
Joan’s success quickly racked up a whole host of enemies, and in 1430 she was captured by Burgundian forces allied with the English. She was put on trial by an ecclesiastical court. The charges ranged from heresy to wearing men’s clothing, a true crime! Despite intense interrogation, Joan remained full of spiritual clarity. When asked if she was in God’s grace, she declared, “If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.”
She was condemned and burned at the stake in 1431 at about nineteen years old. Twenty-five years later, her conviction was overturned. In 1920, nearly five centuries after her death, Joan of Arc was canonized. She is now one of the patron saints of France.
Joan’s story is not the typical tale of triumph. It is a story more about obedience, discernment, and faithfulness under pressure. She reminds us that God often calls the unexpected and that holiness can look like bravery, clarity, and persistence in the face of overwhelming odds. For Lent Madness competitors and faithful alike, Joan of Arc challenges us to ask: what might happen if we trusted God as fiercely as she did?
— Samantha Smith
Collect for Joan of Arc
Holy God, whose power is made perfect in weakness: we honor you for the calling of Jeanne d’Arc, who, though young, rose up in valor to bear your standard for her country, and endured with grace and fortitude both victory and defeat; and we pray that we, like Jeanne, may bear witness to the truth that is in us to friends and enemies alike, and, encouraged by the companionship of your saints, give ourselves bravely to the struggle for justice in our time; through Christ our Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Marina the Monk
St. Marina of Bithynia, also known as Marina the Monk, is a member of a group that I call “church-basement saints” – the ones in the background, quietly doing what they can to make the world better through faith with grace. These saints do not have books or letters for us to read, there are no grand churches or shrines named after them, and they did not perform impressive miracles. They simply lived a life of faith and the world turned towards them because of it. Because Marina is a church-basement saint, we do not have many hard facts, but we do have a legend about this monk. Born sometime between the fifth and sixth centuries in the Middle East, Marina was raised a devout Christian by her father after her mom died when she was very young.
As she reached marriageable age, her father, Eugenius, decided that once she was settled, he would become a monk. Marina vehemently opposed this plan, angrily asking,
“Why would you save your own soul at the cost of destroying mine?” Baffled, her father inquired what her suggestion was, then. In answer, Marina shaved off her hair, put on men’s clothes, and stated that they would join the monastery together. Eugenius agreed and off they went, with Marina now being introduced as a man named Marinos.
Marinos and his father lived, worked, and prayed together in that monastery for a decade before Eugenius passed away. Marinos mourned his loss. He stayed in community at the monastery, though, and continued to live as a monk.
One day, a young, unmarried, pregnant woman told her parents that Marinos was the father of her baby. Outraged, the parents went to the Abbot to demand answers and justice. When confronted, Marinos did not deny the accusation. He took responsibility for the situation and the child. We cannot know why Marinos did this. I personally like to believe that Marinos knew the importance of a good father, one who, like St. Joseph, would go against the pressures of the world for his son. He did not want this innocent little boy, whom he named Fortunato, to grow up lonely and unwanted.
Because of this apparent violation of his vows, Marinos was exiled from his community. He spent years on the streets, begging for food for Fortunato. Eventually, the monks took the two back into the monastery, where Marinos was expected to continue atoning through hard labor. Marinos lived out the rest of his life at that monastery with his son. His secrets were not discovered until after his death, at which time his fellow monks lamented their accusations and experienced miracles at his tomb.
— Bekah Scolare
Collect for Marina the Monk
Give us grace, Lord God, to refrain from judgments about the sins of others; that, like your servant Marina the Monk, we may hold fast to the path of discipleship in the midst of unjust judgments; through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
108 comments on “Joan of Arc vs. Marina the Monk”
Voting for the obvious underdog -- Marina (because I do that sort of thing)
I wonder what prevented Marina from going to a convent? The years of deceiving others in her community might not have been necessary.
Perhaps Marina/Marinos had always felt that she was male. Just like lgbtq+ people today.
One reason Joan of Arc insisted on wearing men's clothes in prison was to keep from being raped by her captors. Given the Church's long history of sexual assault against nuns (in addition to children), it wouldn't surprise me if Marina's reasoning was similar.
convent life and monastic life were not the same. Perhaps also she cherished life alongside her father from whom the thick enclosure walls of a convent would have forever separated her. Or maybe, just maybe, because God was calling her to the monastery, a call that, like the call of so many women throughout the centuries, could not be heard by the church of her times.
The desire not to be separated from her father, it seems.
She felt more comfortable as a man or she wished not to be separated from her father
Marinos lived as a man his entire adult life. He was father to a child. He was faithful to his monastery, not deceitful.
I love the pronoun switch!
Also she was inspired by and perhaps devoted to her father, which might also contribute to her willingness to become a father herself.
The only way to be fair to all the saints is to match martyrs with martyrs and non-martyrs with non-martyrs. Marina starts out with a handicap in this horse race.
Deeply uncomfortable with the idea of of faith being coopted in the service of war, however righteous the cause might seem, I cast my vote for Marina, and for all those whose quiet faithfulness and humility point others towards God.
At first I thought I would vote for the quiet faith of Marina.
But here we are in the midst of political turmoil and ever enlarging wars. And so I vote for Joan and pray for courage and conviction and God’s help in discerning what is mine to do.
I too find it unsettling when God is invoked to support war.
Yes This is why I chose Marina from the start My ancestry is French, so I know about Joan, and yes she was remarkable But the idea that her spirit was used to support war just hits me the wrong way All we ever seem to do is support the idea of battling with others to try to get our own way I am tired of war (especially now given the political implications in our current world) Enough is Enough Marina / Marinos all the way! Please
I too might have voted for the high-profile, arguably worthy Joan of Arc. Won’t be upset if she moves on to the next round. And also was inspired to look up more detail about Marina/Marinos the Monk, as I had never heard the story, and the available details are sparse. What a life of steadfast, quiet, selfless love he lived. As a monk, Marinos could have denounced the young girl who claimed he was the father of her baby. The biological father, who told the girl to point to the young monk if she was pregnant, is variously described as an imperial soldier or a knight staying at her father’s inn. Whether consenting or not, the power dynamics were always against the girl.
Did Marinos further ruin the girl’s life, revealing his own secret while perhaps vindicating himself in the eyes of society? Nope. Marianos humbly asked forgiveness for his sins but was cast out by the abbot. He then lived as a beggar, lovingly raising the child rejected by the mother’s family, and was finally allowed to return with the boy into the monastery - still uncomplaining under the abbot’s punishing conditions. The son he raised also became a monk, living in a community of faith, rather than being outcast by hard-hearted norms of this world. At Marianos’ death, the monks preparing him for burial discovered the secret he kept, proof of his innocence, and all repented their sins against him. Marianos stood as one who lived the Beatitudes, quietly and empathetically, before God, fostering peace and healing for some of the last and least in his community. I vote for Marianos the Monk, an example of humbly living one’s life in God’s all-encompassing truth and love, in a time of societal darkness, coldness and strife.
I don't understand why in the long years of conflict between Britain and France that God would choose to support either. I don't know history having recorded that there was a true justification between these 2 countries as we had with Germany in World War 2
therefore I supportFiona's contention. the elevation of St. Joan is not all that we had previously held it to be. The Times we are currently living in make us pause
From the first time I read her story, I have been awed by Marina, taking the blame for something she didn't do. Sounds a bit like Jesus to me.
Can't resist the underdog. Plus it's such a compelling story of a women coping with a patristic society with humility and grace.
Joan got in trouble for messing in politics. I am so off politics.
Voting for the apolitical underdog, Marina.
France can't win all the time! I'm English so, God forgive me, I could only vote for Marina!
Marina/Marinos has a fascinating history. Talk about sacrificing oneself! My vote is for her since Joan is so famous. Time to celebrate
the ones hidden by time.
Oh my! Give us grace Lord God.
Marina’s story hits many nerves for me…, transgender- Marina devoted herself to Christ. Her love was so intense, devoted, committed and was willing to take BIG risk- not just to be with her earthly father. She dropped everything to devote her life to love and to serve God. No she was not crucified. She admitted to fathering a child and yet was a woman. Thankfully those monks had a bit of compassion and brought her back to the monastery to raise this child. God must have been walking very closely with her.
I am very pleased that her gender was NOT revealed until she died. Causes one to pause and reflect on gender identity today.
Joan of Arc disguised herself out of necessity during war, but she never denied who she was. The story of Marina/Marinos is built on a life lived under a false identity. God is not confused when He creates us—male and female are part of His design, not something we redefine.
But if we believe God created us all, then we must believe he created us just as we are, including people who are members of the LGBTQ+ community.
As we are .
there are many biological errors as have been readily recorded in medical histories
There's an issue with voting'
We've all heard of voter fraud and the attempt by the current administration to solve a "non-problem". I believe there are issues with the Lent Madness voting.
For one, there is nothing to stop a person from voting multiple times,.
I also believe there have been instances of voters "stuffing" the ballot box to effect a win for their candidate. As an example, the average vote count is about 6400. On the February 25th contest; Amy Carmichael vs. Edith Stein, the vote count was 10,517. As a fact, the vote count was running very close all day with the lead going back and forth. Suddenly at the end of voting, Edith Stein surged into the lead with an amazing 500 vote lead. This problem has occurred before, but the "management" was able to determine the problems and take corrective action to eliminate any fraudulent voting. This needs to be done again!
Wow! That story of Marina/Marinos would make a great Broadway musical but I’m prejudiced in favor of the heroine from my high school drama class: “You promised me my life, but you lied. You think life is nothing more than not being stone dead… Go ahead. Light your fire!”
You have me imagining what GB Shaw or Shakespeare could have done with her life story.
Marino didn't get the celebrity author, but Mark Twain wrote a fat and entirely serious (and impassioned) book about Joan of Arc.
Give Marina a chance!!!
Had me at "basement saints". So NO to Joanie on the pony and Yes to Marina the Monk.
I know it’s not accurate to impose modern terms and identities onto historical figures, but Marina/Marinos is so special to me as a Christian trans man who loves monasticism <3
It's not that I don't like the quiet saints - I aspire to no more (or less) than that! But I have to give preference to people we are sure really existed. So, Joan it is!
To volunteer to suffer poverty and disgrace to care for a child outweighs making war any day in my book. I vote Matina!
My vote today goes to Marina/os - who saw a child in need of love and responded with, "Yes, this is my child." May we all follow their example and learn to love every child as our own.
I've loved Joan since I was a little girl, but today I am voting for Marina. People who stick with God's calling no matter what it takes (of course, so did Joan) are special in my book. Go Marina!!
This was tougher than I expected. Although I admire the monk, I could not shake my total admiration for Joan, who beyond all reason and odds followed God’s command.
All honor to Joan of Arc, but my vote today goes to Marina the Monk. The monastic communities of the world have, throughout history, preserved learning when it was endangered by political violence.
These two cross-dressers did what they had to in a man's world. Power to them both!
Voting Marinos/a as his story has meant so much to me as a trans person. It is so important to see our “transcestors” in the faith.
Women have had so little autonomy. I don't wonder that both of these women chose to live more like a man. Voting for Marina.
I voted for Marina/os because I have a number of friends and relatives who have chosen to live as a different gender than that assigned at birth. Imagine the courage to admit, even though actually a woman, to having fathered an illegitimate child. But I was almost convinced to vote the other way by the collect for Joan. Go back and read it again -- this is a prayer urgently needed in our day.
Sorry I just cannot believe that we should be making our choices to rise someone in the bracket based on the collect
Joan is a rare powerhouse saint. But I went with Marina for her willingness to adopt a child which was not hers and to remain loyal to him.
I’m glad I took y’all’s advice & read the stories!
Marina’s story was new to me & they get my vote for what they did for a child that was not theirs & the sacrifices made to keep protecting child & father’s legacy. Daddy’s girl votes for another !
Si j’y suis, qu’il m’y tienne. If I am in grace, may God keep me there. This was in response to one of the malign, tricksy questions asked of Joan to get her to commit a mortal sin. Artaud was the sympathetic cleric who warned her. I will never forget Renée Falconetti as Jeanne in Dreyer’s film. Having just watched snippets of the anti-Joan refuse to apologize to the parents of Alex Pretti for calling him a “domestic terrorist” and though she is now off to be the Shield of the KKK or something like that, I had to vote for a genuine woman in armor. Joan was accused of being an “homasse,” a woman-man. Courage belongs to both men and women, as does cowardice. My vote for Joan is in honor of Aaron Reynolds, another martyr sacrificed in flames.
Mine too. Joan was martyred, in part, precisely for her open gender non-conformity. And I see her in Renee Goode's own courage, death, and posthumous malignment.
I remember fighting this battle a few years ago, for a different (apparently) transgender saint. Thank you for using Marinos' correct pronouns, and may we continue to call him by his chosen name. St. Marinos the Monk. Son. Brother. Father. He lived, served, suffered, and died as a man. This was not a silly disguise. This was a choice. A life.
To the Supreme Executive Committee: Stop dead-naming him.
Thank you! He really should be known as Marinos the Monk and not Marina.
That is kind of anachronistic. We have no way of knowing what was actually in Marina/os's heart. And there would have been plenty of reasons in a highly restrictive, patriarchal society for women to outwardly take a male identity, none of them "silly."
Today I am siding with compassion. Today I side with "let not your right hand know what your left is doing". Today I side with all trans, no matter the cause of that choice. So I side with Monk Marinos, and with his father and his son.
Me too, Regina!
Jenny