As Marina approached marriageable age, her father intended to find his child a husband and then retire to the Monastery of Qannoubine in the Kadisha Valley of Lebanon.

Eugenius, seeing his child's strong determination, gave all his possessions to the poor and travelled with Marina to the Kadisha Valley to live in monastic community life, where they shared a cell.

The other monks attributed her soft voice to long periods of prayer, or else believed their new brother was a male eunuch.

Upon seeing the beauty of the inn keeper's daughter, who was working there, the soldier seduced her and defiled her virginity, instructing her to say, "that the young monk, Father Marinos, did that to me" should she conceive a child.

[8][10] After some time, it was discovered that the inn keeper's daughter was pregnant and, as was agreed, she told her father that "it was the young monk, abba Marinos, who did that to me.

Marinos fed the child with sheep's milk, provided by the local shepherds, and remained caring for him outside the monastery for ten years.

The abbot ordered that Marinos' body be cleaned, her clothes changed and that she be transferred to the church for funeral prayers.

It was also believed that God allowed a devil to torment the inn keeper's daughter and the soldier, and that this caused them to travel to where the saint was buried, where they confessed their iniquity in front of everyone and asked for forgiveness.