Transvestite Saints Research Paper

Virtually any person can become a saint regardless of gender, background, or social status. Canonization in the Catholic Church is a lengthy process in which the person being considered for sainthood must have lived an exemplary and holy life worthy of imitating. Leading a sinless life though, is not a requirement for sainthood because many saints were pagan before converting; their acts after conversion is what is taken into consideration by the church. Additionally, two miracles must be performed by the saint once they’ve passed away. The process in adopting a person as a saint is a lengthy one because all kinds of evidence must be gathered in order to officially canonize the candidate and that is only after the pope makes the decision of

Moses the Black and St. Vladimir of Kiev led extremely secular lives until they reached turning points in their lives, converted, and dedicated themselves to serving God. Other saints like St. Apolinaria and St. Theodora are strikingly peculiar even more so; they did not lead immoral lives before their conversion, rather they led their monastic lives as monks in order to continue practicing their faith. Indeed these women were so passionate that they were willing to disguise themselves as men to serve God. Saint Marina the monk is the most remarkable one out of all these “transvestite saints” because her conviction was so fervent she went to great lengths to cover her identity even after being falsely accused of raping an innkeeper’s daughter. There remains uncertainty around what date Saint Marina was born; some accounts claim that she was born during the fifth century while others say she was born in the eighth, but it is known that she originated from Byzantine Syria which is now known as Lebanon. Her mother passed away when she was only a small child so her father, who was a wealthy Christian man, brought her up. There are quite a few different versions of what happened

They both adopted a strictly religious life of obedience and asceticism. Other’s claim that when Marina grew up to be a young woman, her father was motivated to seek out a husband for her in order to give her away in marriage as he also wanted to become a monk. Upon hearing of this news, Marina strongly opposed her father’s plans and asked him why he was essentially damning her while intending to save his own soul. Marina’s father was unsure of what to do with her, but she solemnly stood by what she had told her father and decided to shave her head and wear men’s clothing so that they could both be accepted in the monastery. Realizing that his daughter was serious, he sold all of their belongings and they both went off to live at a monastery where he proceeded to change her name to Marinus. Both of them lived together at the monastery and after ten years, her father grew ill and passed away. There are also varying accounts to the events that followed. Some say that one day she was sent off by the abbot of the monastery to carry out some duties along with three other monks. Since their journey was long they decided to spend the night at an inn where one of the king’s soldiers was also