Marilena Carpathia

Marilena Carpathia is the mother of Nicolae Carpathia in the Left Behind series of books.

The beginning of The Rising (Book #13 in the Left Behind series; #1 in the Before They Were Left Behind series) has Marilena uneventfully married to her university colleague, Sorin Carpathia. Their marriage is devoid of the romance and love that husband and wife share; rather, Marilena regards Sorin more as a close companion with whom she can have intellectual discussions. She dreams of having a child, though she has had to suppress it amidst the wishes of her husband. Sorin eventually reveals to Marilena that he is homosexual, and is in a relationship with a fellow lecturer, Baduna Marius, but because of the melancholy of their marriage, this comes as little shock to her and is in fact genuinely happy for Sorin.

Marilena is introduced to Viviana Ivinisova (aka Viv Ivins), who tells Marilena that her wish of having a child will come true and that her child will change the face of the world. Ivins also reveals herself as a member of a secret organization dealing in Luciferianism and invites Marilena to join to help fulfill her dream. Unknown to Marilena, she is a chosen vessel, one that will unknowingly give birth to the greatest evil the world has ever known: the Antichrist. Also unknown to her was the near-equally well-kept and horrifying secret that Sorin was actually hired by the organization to marry her (so her son, Nicolae, would inherit the Carpathia name, an important factor) and that he and Baduna provided the genetic material for Nicolae's conception.

As Nicolae grows, Marilena questions who her soul truly belongs to: Lucifer or God. She is murdered near the end of The Rising by one of Ivins' followers, masquerading as a doctor, when her son comes of age. As she lays dying, Marilena renounces Lucifer and begs God to forgive her for what she has done.