Life of Saint Macrina the Younger, and Her Family of Saints

Book excerpt: One of the most fascinating women saints of the early Church, Macrina was the elder sister and mentor of two of the great Cappadocian Fathers, Bishop Basil the Great, and Gregory of Nyssa. She was also described as "father, teacher, guide, and mother" to her youngest brother, Bishop Peter of Sebaste, the posthumous child of St. Basil the Elder. Macrina, having tragically lost her fiancee, remained a virgin, true to his memory, never leaving the side of her mother, St. Emmelia. Deeply philosophic, she inspired her brothers to become leaders in the early church and to love the intellectual life and the pursuit of perfection through her teaching. She founded one of the first monastic communities for women and is the patroness of breast cancer victims. Macrina and her family of saints and martyrs lived through challenging age of the Great Persecution of the Christians in the Roman Empire and experienced the golden age of the Emperor Constantine the Great.