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St. Marina the Martyr
Ⲙⲁⲓⲓⲝⲁ (Marina)
THE ACCOUNT
A young Christian woman from Antioch in Pisidia, daughter of a pagan priest, who was raised by a Christian nurse. She refused the advances of the Roman prefect Olybrius and endured terrible tortures: burning with torches, drowning, and swallowing by a dragon. She was finally beheaded at age fifteen.
THE MIRACLE
Swallowed whole by a dragon (or Satan in dragon form) in her prison cell, she made the sign of the cross and the dragon burst open, releasing her unharmed. This image of Marina emerging from the dragon became one of the most popular in Coptic iconography.