Justinian Marina (; born Ioan Marina ) (February 2, 1901, in Suiești, Vâlcea County – March 26, 1977, in Bucharest) was a Romanian Orthodox prelate. He was the third patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, serving between 1948 and 1977. Parish priest in the Râmnic Diocese Ioan Marina was born in the village of Suieşti, in the former commune of Cermegeşti, Vâlcea County, to a family of farmers. As his mother wanted him to become a priest and he had a natural tendency toward learning, in 1915 he entered the St. Nicholas Theological Seminary in Râmnicu Vâlcea. He graduated in 1923, that year also obtaining a teacher's diploma, after taking an examination at the Normal School in the same city. He began his social work on September 1, 1923, as a teacher at the primary school in Olteanca, Vâlcea County. A year later, on September 1, 1924, he was transferred, also as a teacher, to the primary school in Băbeni, Vâlcea County (then a commune, now a town). Then, on October 14, 1924, he married Lucreţia Popescu, daughter of the priest Pavel Popescu, from the Braloştiţa commune, Dolj County. After this he became a priest in Băbeni, continuing to teach as well. In 1925 he enrolled as a student at the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Theology, receiving a licentiate in theology in 1929. The next year he quit work as a schoolteacher, becoming a full-time priest. Noticing that the talents of the young priest exceeded those meant for a village priest, Vartolomeu Stănescu, Bishop of Râmnic, called Marina to him and on November 1, 1932, named him director of the St. Nicholas Theological Seminary in Râmnicu Vâlcea. That day he was also assigned as a priest at the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, Râmnicu Vâlcea. On September 1, 1933, he was transferred, at his request, to serve as a priest at the parish of St. George, Râmnicu Vâlcea, whose pastorate was then vacant. In 1935 he was named confessor to Râmnicu Vâlcea's scouts, and the next year he became catechizer to the pre-military boys of the city. Marina's wife died on November 18, 1935, at the age of 27. Left a widower at 34, he did not remarry, raising his children, Silvia and Ovidiu, by himself. On August 25, 1939, Fr. Marina was moved from the seminary headmastership to be the director of the diocesan printing press. In eight months,