Venerable Macrina, sister of Saint Basil the Great

Macrina the Younger was the eldest of ten children of Basil and Emmelia, a Christian family in Cappadocia, and sister of Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa and Peter of Sebaste. She was born c. 327 and was educated at home from the Psalms and the Wisdom books. After her betrothed died young, she chose not to marry and stayed with her mother. She is said to have persuaded her proud brother Basil to turn to ascetic life; she and her mother made the family estate on the river Iris in Pontus into a community of women and servants living together as nuns.

Gregory of Nyssa, who visited her shortly before her death and wrote her Life, describes her last days in prayer. She died on 19 July 380, the year after Basil’s death.