Father Marina

So ... you're a woman, in the guise of a man, living as a monk, when this pregnant girl -- knocked up by a soldier -- starts telling everyone you're the father! and her dad's furious, and the abbot's all like, what?! in full-on castigation mode -- they're gonna make you leave the monastery and everything ... So, what d'you do? You accept the punishment, bring up the kid with all the care as if it were yours, and go on living a life of poverty, service and prayerful asceticism until you die. Obvs.

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                FATHER MARINA

                Her fellow brothers staggered back, wide-eyed:

                The husk of him, respectfully undressed

                In preparation for the grave, belied

                The guilt her silence seemed to have confessed.

                Not one shred of the case against him held;

                Wherever was the means? the will? And yet

                She'd borne the sentence, exiled in the world

                To tend the yield of someone else's debt.

                Attestants were re-summoned, and reproved;

                The abbot grieved; the young ward wailed, bereft

                Of both and neither parent. All were moved,

                And marvelled that a lifetime of self-death

                Had not destroyed the mother in him, rather

                Raised an imitation of her Father.

                Carolyn Whitnall, 2014

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NOTES

1. The curious, thought-provoking story of Marina the Monk can be read on everybody's favourite free-access, 

   

   "Sainte Marine présentée au monastère"
   Richard de Montbaston; public domain.

   free-content Internet encyclopaedia.
2. "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Ephesians 5:1-2)
3. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)
4. "For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly." (1 Peter 2:20-23)