The Venerable Macrina

Life

The eldest sister of Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory of Nyssa. As a maiden she was betrothed early to a certain young man of noble birth. But when her betrothed died, Macrina vowed never to enter into marriage, saying: "It is not right that a maiden, betrothed to one bridegroom, should go to another; by the law of nature there should be but one marriage, as there is but one birth and one death." She further justified this by her faith in the resurrection, considering her betrothed not dead but living in God. "It is a sin and a shame," she said, "for a wife not to keep faith with her husband when he has departed to some distant land." After that, together with her mother Emilia, she received the monastic tonsure in a certain convent, where they labored in asceticism with other nuns. They lived by the labor of their own hands, devoting the greater part of their time to the contemplation of God, to prayer, and to the unceasing elevation of the mind toward God. In time her mother died, and after her, her brother Basil. Nine months after the death of Basil, Gregory came to visit his sister, but found her on her deathbed. Before death itself, Saint Macrina raised a prayer to the Lord: "Thou, O Lord, dost give rest to our bodies in the sleep of death for a time, and Thou shalt awaken them again at the last trumpet. Forgive me and grant that when my soul puts off the garment of the body, it may stand before Thee spotless and without sin, and may be as incense before Thee." Then she made the sign of the cross with her hand upon her forehead, upon her eyes, upon her face, upon her heart — and breathed her last. She reposed in the Lord in the year 379.

From the Hymn of Praise

From early youth unto heavy old ageDius counted the wonders of God's mercy,Of God's mercy and God's righteousness.Day and night Dius directed his mind