Hello, everyone. On February 12, the holy Orthodox Church commemorates our venerable mother Mary of Alexandria. Now, Mary’s story is really quite extraordinary. She was a pious youth, probably in her teens—we don’t know exactly how old she was—but she lost her mother. Upon this tragedy in the family, she fully meant to spend at least the next few years with her father, too. But her father, out of a burning love and desire for Christ, decided to enter one of the monasteries in Alexandria. Mary, then, who also had a desire for monastic life, decided to follow him, if such a thing could be possible.

And so she put on men’s clothing and cut her hair very short and tried to enter the monastery. Now, before anyone raises their hand, we do know, of course, that there are actually canons that forbid men from dressing like women and vice-versa. Yet we see this often in some of the stories of the female saints. Mary, out of great love for her father, and probably because of her young age, too, just wanted to be near him. So she was allowed into the monastery and was assigned, as an obedience, to work with some of the younger monks that were there. She became as Father Marinus.

One day, as she was outside of the monastery under obedience again, she went down towards an inn where the innkeeper had a very wanton daughter. This daughter fell in love with Father Marinus. It’s sort of a reverse-Yentl situation, if you’ve ever seen that particular Barbara Streisand movie. Now, the daughter was repulsed by Father Marinus, who was very strict and stringent with her, and sent her away. She was angry about this, and so she accused Father Marinus of actually having relations with her, and in fact she had had relations with a soldier who had impregnated her.

So the situation didn’t look good for our saint. But yet, with great fortitude and courage, she decided to take all of the insults and all of the things that were thrown at her with great, great strength, out of love for Christ. In fact, after the baby was born, Father Marinus (or Venerable Mary) actually became a foster-father to the young son that was born.

Well, it doesn’t end there. Because of the great scandal, Father Marinus was summarily tossed out of the monastery. No surprise. So Father Marinus endured this for a number of years, until the child became three years old, when at that point he applied for admission again, having the child in tow, back to the monastery, and they took him back.

In the meanwhile, because of her great lustfulness and non-appreciation of the spiritual life and of her demeanor and attitude towards other people, the innkeeper’s daughter became possessed by a demon and eventually went mad. Well, as time went on and we hit the year 508—and again there’s no indication as to how old Father Marinus was at that point—but she (Venerable Mary) reposed in the Lord, and, as often happens in these cases, it was when they were preparing the body for burial that it became known that Father Marinus was indeed female.

Now, at the funeral, when the coffin was opened, the innkeeper’s daughter came forward and actually touched the relics of Venerable Mary. At that moment, thanks be to God, the demon left her, and she became completely sane. Then she began to reveal the true story behind the child, that it was a soldier who had impregnated her, and that Father Marinus (or Venerable Mary) had had nothing to do with it. All of the monks were astounded at this, because they had absolutely no idea that they person that they were addressing as Father Marinus all those years was indeed a woman, and because of that they proclaimed her thrice-blessed for all of the things that she had accomplished and all of the things that she had suffered.

We, too, of course, suffer some things. We can suffer insults, we suffer slanders, and probably immediately we get rather upset about it. Well, we were not in the place of Father Marinus who had a lot more to lose, in fact, her chosen way of life, when these things were hurled at her. But yet, because of love for our Lord Jesus Christ, she bore them with great dignity and love and responsibility, which is very important in the spiritual life. So let’s remember Venerable Mary of Alexandria, who reposed in the year 508, and is yet another hidden saint who sets wonderful examples for us in so many ways.