Marina and Kyra (also rendered Marana and Cyra) were sisters of Berea (Veria) in Syria who lived as enclosed ascetics, commemorated together on February 28. Born to wealthy and prominent parents, they left their family home on reaching maturity and devoted themselves to a life of extreme bodily discipline. Their asceticism is recorded as having continued for some forty years, and they reposed about the year 450.
Their principal source is the Religious History (Historia Religiosa) of Theodoret of Cyrrhus, who knew the sisters personally and described them as a contemporary witness. According to his account, the two women cleared a small plot of ground in front of the town and walled up the entrance with stones and clay, leaving only a narrow opening through which food was passed to them. Their enclosure had no roof, so they remained exposed to the weather, while attendants who served them lived in a separate dwelling nearby.
The sisters wore heavy iron restraints — by Theodoret's description a collar, a belt about the waist, and chains on the hands and feet — beneath large mantles that covered the face, neck, chest, hands, and feet. Kyra, weaker in body, was bent toward the ground under their weight. They also kept a strict rule of silence and prolonged fasting, eating only at long intervals. When Theodoret visited, they admitted him out of respect for his episcopal rank, and he persuaded them to set aside the chains for a time; after he departed they resumed wearing them.
