Saint Macrina the Younger

Macrina was born around 327 in Caesarea of Cappadocia, in present-day Turkey, the eldest of ten children in a family of saints: her grandmother was Saint Macrina the Elder, and among her brothers were Saint Basil the Great, Saint Gregory of Nyssa and Saint Peter of Sebaste. When the young man she was engaged to died suddenly, she chose to remain unmarried and dedicate her life to God.

She helped her mother, Emmelia, raise her younger brothers and is credited with drawing Basil away from worldly ambition toward the service of God. Together with her mother she turned the family estate at Annisi, in Pontus, into a community of prayer and work where former servants lived as sisters. Gregory of Nyssa visited her as she was dying in 379 and later wrote her Life and a dialogue, On the Soul and the Resurrection, recording her wise words on eternal life.

The Eastern Churches honor Macrina as a great teacher of the faith, and her memory is a reminder of the role of sisters, mothers and grandmothers in forming saints. Her brother's Life of Macrina is still read as one of the most beautiful portraits of a holy woman from the early Church.