death_date attributes feast_day imagesize venerated_in patronage major_shrine image article_title name
366 -lrb- traditional -rrb- depicted hammer ; also depicted as a young deacon with a as hammer ; depicted serving as a deacon to saint leo a the great or gaudentius of rimini ; two oxen near bearded him . layman with a stonemason 's september 3 250px roman catholic church eastern orthodox church san marino basilica of saint marinus marino als steinhauer.png saint marinus
 saint marinus
saint marinus

saint marinus was the founder of a chapel and monastery , in 301 , from where the world 's oldest surviving republic , san marino , grew .
tradition holds that he was a stonemason by trade who came from the island of rab , on the other side of the adriatic sea -lrb- in what is now part of modern croatia -rrb- , fleeing persecution for his christian beliefs in the diocletianic persecution .
he became a deacon , and was ordained by gaudentius , the bishop of rimini ; later , he was accused by an insane woman of being her estranged husband , so he fled to monte titano to live as a hermit .
there he built a chapel and monastery .
marinus was canonised as a saint , and later , the state of san marino grew up from the centre created by the monastery .
his feast day/memorial day is september 3 , commemorating the day , in 301 , when he founded what became known as san marino , which is also the state 's national holiday .
according to legend , he died in the winter of 366 and his last words were : '' '' '' . ''
-lrb- `` i leave you free from both men '' -rrb- .
this somewhat mysterious phrase is most likely to refer to the two `` men '' from whose oppressive power saint marinus had decided to separate himself , becoming a hermit on mount titano : respectively the emperor and the pope .
this affirmation of freedom -lrb- first and foremost fiscal franchise -rrb- from both the empire and the papal states , however legendary , has always been the inspiration of the tiny republic .
