St Marina of Antioch Beating the Devil with a Hammer | Stop, Hammer Time | Modern Orthodox Meme | Red Blue and Yellow | Christian Journal

In the annals of saints’ lives, Saint Marina (sometimes referred to as Saint Margaret) of Antioch stands out as a particularly bright supernova in the firmament of God’s glorified ones, due to her youth and the utter ferocity of her struggle for her Crucified Lord.

She was born sometime in the early 4th century AD to a pagan priest and a mother who died while giving birth to the saint. She was given over to the care of a nursemaid. While she was still a youth, Marina went to work as a shepherdess. She learned of the Christian faith when she was about 12, and vowed perpetual chastity to the Lord.

The local pagan governor, named Olymbrios, became enchanted by the formidable beauty of the young Christian, though she rebuffed his advances, preferring fidelity and steadfastness to the vows she had made to her Creator and Redeemer above any honors or wealth or fame that a worldly prince could possibly bestow on her. For her daring and  courage, she was publicly denounced as a Christian and mandated to offer sacrifices to the abominable idols of the pagans, and her refusal to comply resulted in her imprisonment - this was her first level of temptation.

The second level of temptation of the spiritual athlete consisted of various tortures spawned from the demonized minds of the pagans under Olymbrios: she was beaten with wooden clubs and her flesh was raked with iron claws. The cruelty of the idol worshipers knew no bounds: they drove nails into her body and burned her with fire. Still Marina refused to bow before the will of the governor or his minions.

When the enemy of mankind, the devil, saw that none of the evils he had inspired in the darkened minds of his human servants had been to no avail, he administered the third and final level of temptations himself, which the Lord allowed the saint due to her own prayer: 

“O Lord my God, allow me, thy handmaiden Marina, to see the Enemy of the human race warring against me. Let him come face to face before Thy servant. Thou art the Judge, O my God, the King of the universe, and the Ruler of the living and the dead, so I enjoin You in Your patience and love for mankind: judge between me and the devil, father of abominations. Deliver me from eternal torment and estrangement from You, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Give me Thy grace me to overcome him, and send Satan to hell by Thine invincible power. Amen.”

Initially the devil took the form of a fearsome dragon who devoured her, as the sea monster had devoured Job of old, and like the Prophet she was delivered from its belly by her prayer and the making of the Sign of the Cross, which rended the creature inside out and tore him apart, just as the visitation of the Lord caused Hades to disgorge all its occupants from ages past. 

Finding herself again on the floor of the dungeon, the saint saw Satan lurking in a corner, who relaunched his violent assault on the young woman. In her state of prayer, she saw a copper hammer lying nearby, which she picked up and with which physically resisted the enemy of mankind, the seducer and tempter of our forefathers in Paradise. Holding the evil one by his horns, she beat him over the head while saying: “Depart from me, O lawless one.”

At last the Lord heard the valiant one’s prayer and honored her tenacity and vigor: the heavens opened above her in the form of the Life-Giving Cross, from which descended a white dove, which told her to rejoice, for her struggles had vanquished the devil and won her everlasting glory with God. The abyss opened upon below and swallowed whole her defeated opponent. 

Out of patience, the dejected and defeated governor beheaded the teenage martyr, who went to join her Bridegroom. Various traditions say she was fifteen or sixteen years old.