Macrina the Younger facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Saint Macrina the Younger
Born	c. 327 Caesarea, Cappadocia (modern-day Kayseri, Turkey)
Died	19 July 379 Pontus (modern-day Anatolia, Turkey)
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church Oriental Orthodoxy Roman Catholic Church Anglican Communion Lutheranism
Feast	19 July 14 June (with Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory Nazianzus; Lutheranism)

Macrina the Younger (c. 327 – 19 July 379) was a nun in the Early Christian Church and is a prominent saint in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox churches. Her younger brother, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, wrote a work entitled Life of Macrina in which he describes her sanctity and asceticism throughout her life. Macrina lived a chaste and humble life, devoting her time to prayer and the spiritual education of her younger brother, Peter. Gregory presents her choosing the devoted study of Scripture and other sacred writings.

Family

Macrina was born at Caesarea, Cappadocia. Her parents were Basil the Elder and Emmelia, and her grandmother was Macrina the Elder. Among her nine siblings were two of the three Cappadocian Fathers, her younger brothers Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, as well as Peter of Sebaste and the famous Christian jurist Naucratius. Her father arranged for her to marry but her fiancé died before the wedding. After having been betrothed to her fiancé, Macrina did not believe it was appropriate to marry another man, but saw Christ as her eternal bridegroom. Instead, she devoted herself to her religion, becoming a nun.

Macrina had a profound influence upon her brothers and her mother with her adherence to an ascetic ideal. Her brother Gregory of Nyssa wrote a work entitled Life of Macrina in which he describes her sanctity throughout her life. Macrina lived a chaste and humble life, devoting her time to prayer and the spiritual education of her younger brother, Peter. Gregory presents her as one who consciously rejected all Classical education, choosing instead devoted study of Scripture and other sacred writings.

Macrina and her mother moved to one of their rural estates and organized a monastic community of virgins who come from both an aristocratic and a non-aristocratic origin. All members were free and slaves got the same rights and obligations as their masters. The death of the brother Naucratius shocked her mother and gave to Macrina a priority role in the domestic life.

In 379, Macrina died at her family's estate in Pontus, which with the help of her younger brother Peter she had turned into a monastery and convent. Gregory of Nyssa composed a "Dialogue on the Soul and Resurrection" (peri psyches kai anastaseos), entitled ta Makrinia (P.G. XLVI, 12 sq.), to commemorate Macrina, in which Gregory purports to describe the conversation he had with Macrina at her death, in a literary form modelled on Plato's Phaedo. Even when dying, Macrina continued to live a life of sanctity, as she refused a bed, and instead chose to lie on the ground. Her feast day is 19 July.

Macrina is significant in that she set the standard for being a holy Early Christian woman. She contributed to her brother's writings and his belief that virginity reflected the “radiant purity of God.” While Christian martyrdom is the sacrifice of life in the sake of being like Jesus Christ, God the virginity become a sacrifice for the sake of spouse's life, namely, the Church intended as the Mystical Body of Jesus and to live like angels of God.

Legacy

Universalists, including Thomas Allin and J. W. Hanson, claim Macrina as a committed universalist, citing passages from the Dialogue on the Soul and Resurrection which they believe demonstrate her conviction that all sinners and demons will at last be purified and confess Christ.

Macrina is remembered (with Gregory) in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 19 July.

Works

• Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Macrina
• Gregory of Nyssa, Dialogue on the Soul and Resurrection

See also

In Spanish: Macrina la Joven para niños