Posts Tagged St. Macrina the Younger
Gregory of Nyssa: Our Sister Macrina
Posted by Dallas Wolf in Monasticism, Patristic Pearls, The Cappadocians, Women in Early Christianity on March 7, 2025
Excerpt from Gregory of Nyssa: The Letters, by Ann M. Silvas, Brill, 2007
Gregory of Nyssa – Letter 19 To a certain John
The letter was written from Sebasteia in the first half of AD 380. The brief but intense cameo of Gregory’s sister, 19.6–10, is a foreshadowing and a promise of the Life of Macrina. It is the earliest documentation we have of Macrina’s existence, her way of life and her funeral led by Gregory, written less than a year after her death. The witness of her lifestyle, her conversations with him which were so formative and strengthening of his religious spirit, and above all his providential participation in her dying hours had a profound affect on him. It only needed time to absorb and reflect on these events. Then, when the occasion offered, he set out to make his remarkable sister better known to the world.
Our Sister Macrina
We had a sister who was for us a teacher of how to live, a mother in place of our mother. Such was her freedom towards God that she was for us a strong tower (Ps 60.4) and a shield of favour (Ps 5.13) as the Scripture says, and a fortified city (Ps 30.22, 59.11) and a name of utter assurance, through her freedom towards God that came of her way of life.
She dwelt in a remote part of Pontus, having exiled herself from the life of human beings. Gathered around her was a great choir of virgins whom she had brought forth by her spiritual labour pains (cf. 1 Cor 4.15, Gal 4.19) and guided towards perfection through her consummate care, while she herself imitated the life of angels in a human body.
With her there was no distinction between night and day. Rather, the night showed itself active with the deeds of light (cf. Rom 12.12–13, Eph 5.8) and day imitated the tranquility of night through serenity of life. The psalmodies resounded in her house at all times night and day.
You would have seen a reality incredible even to the eyes: the flesh not seeking its own, the stomach, just as we expect in the Resurrection, having finished with its own impulses, streams of tears poured out (cf. Jer. 9.1, Ps 79.6) to the measure of a cup, the mouth meditating the law at all times (Ps 1.2, 118.70), the ear attentive to divine things, the hand ever active with the commandments (cf. Ps 118.48). How indeed could one bring before the eyes a reality that transcends description in words?
Well then, after I left your region, I had halted among the Cappadocians, when unexpectedly I received some disturbing news of her. There was a ten days’ journey between us, so I covered the whole distance as quickly as possible and at last reached Pontus where I saw her and she saw me.
But it was the same as a traveler at noon whose body is exhausted from the sun. He runs up to a spring, but alas, before he has touched the water, before he has cooled his tongue, all at once the stream dries up before his eyes and he finds the water turned to dust.
So it was with me. At the tenth year I saw her whom I so longed to see, who was for me in place of a mother and a teacher and every good, but before I could satisfy my longing, on the third day I buried her and returned on my way.
Meet St. Macrina the Younger; the “Fourth Cappadocian”
Posted by Dallas Wolf in Monasticism, Patristic Pearls, The Cappadocians, Women in Early Christianity on October 27, 2024
St. Macrina the Younger (AD 327-379) was a mystic consecrated virgin from a landed and committed Christian family. She was the elder sister of four Cappadocian Saints: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Naucratius, and St. Peter of Sebasteia. She was also friends with fellow Cappadocian, St. Gregory of Nazianzus.
Brother Gregory of Nyssa records a powerful statement about Macrina, his older sister, in his 19th letter, “We had a sister who was for us a teacher of how to live, a mother in place of our mother.” It is well documented that big sister Macrina had significant influence in the spiritual development and careers of brothers Basil, Naucratius, Gregory, and Peter, all of whom became saints.
In addition to her role as teacher, guide, and exemplar to her younger siblings, Macrina transformed her family’s estate at Annisa, in Pontus [Uluköy, modern Turkey], into a cenobitic monastery, or domestic ascetic community, of virgin women. All of these women were treated as equals, regardless of their former social or economic status. Over time, Macrina added accommodations for ascetic celibate men and orphan children to her monastery.
But, there is more to Macrina’s story.
Brother Gregory records the story of the miraculous healing of Macrina of a disease which many hypothesize to have been breast cancer. Gregory writes, “she went into the sanctuary and remained there all night long prostrate before the God of healing, weeping a flood of tears to moisten the earth, and she used the mud from her tears as a salve to put on the effected place” (Gregory of Nyssa: “The Life of St. Macrina”, 48).
An example of Macrina as wonder worker is also recorded by Gregory, documenting the testimony of the garrison commander of the Pontus town of Sebastopolis. This distinguished military man reported that he, with his wife and daughter, had once visited Macrina’s monastery, “that powerhouse of virtue,” and when they left, their daughter’s severe eye disease was cured by Macrina’s prayers, “the true medicine with which she heals diseases.” (Life of Macrina, 52)
Macrina the Younger was a spiritual force of nature, according to the testimony of brother Gregory of Nyssa. Although her story may be embellished, her prophetic disposition and pastoral qualities, coupled with her direct divine experiences are both inspiring and edifying to modern ears.
Gregory finished his story of Macrina’s life by saying, “In order therefore that those who have too little faith, and who do not believe in the gifts of God, should come to no harm, for this reason I have declined to make a complete record here of the greater miracles, since I think that what I have already said is sufficient to complete Macrina’s story.” (The Life of Macrina, 54)
While Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus have long been honored and revered as the three great “Cappadocian Fathers”, Macrina did not historically receive much serious attention from theologians or scholars. In more recent years Macrina has been hailed by the Orthodox theologian, Jaroslav Pelikan, and others as the “Fourth Cappadocian”.
Regardless of her title, Macrina has greatly influenced Christianity through her life as a consecrated virgin, prophet, monastic founder and leader, mother, father, sister, teacher, wonder worker, and philosopher of God.
First Thoughts 