Macrina the Younger was the eldest of ten children of a wealthy Cappadocian Christian family, elder sister of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, two of the three Cappadocian Fathers. After her betrothed died before their marriage, she refused to marry and instead turned the family estate at Annisa, in Pontus, into an ascetic community she founded together with her mother Emmelia, living a life of communal prayer, simplicity and shared work with the household's women, including former servants brought in as equals. Gregory of Nyssa, writing after her death, credited her with shaping both his own and Basil's turn toward ascetic discipline and theological life, and cast her as the central voice of his dialogue On the Soul and the Resurrection, framed as a conversation held at her deathbed in which she answers questions about grief, the soul and the resurrection of the body.
Facts
Attestation
HistoricityKnown chiefly through her brother Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Macrina, a near-contemporary account of her life at the family monastic household in Pontus. Veneration TodayActively venerated in a living tradition 2 Traditions Revering This Figure Canonization Origins
FoundedEstablished one of the earliest women's ascetic communities in Asia Minor, on the family estate at Annisa, admitting former servants as equals within it. 2 Place of OriginCaesarea in Cappadocia (present day Kayseri, Turkey); the family estate at Annisa, in Pontus. 2 Position Profile
Key TextGregory of Nyssa's dialogue On the Soul and the Resurrection casts her as its central voice, framed as a conversation held at her deathbed. 2 Life
Lifespan or Floruit Lifespan or Floruit Lifespan or Floruit History
Historical NoteFounded a monastic community with her mother at the family estate of Annisa and is credited by her brother Gregory of Nyssa with shaping both his own and Basil the Great's turn toward ascetic and theological life. 2 Connections
Associated With
Her younger brother; both he and their brother Gregory of Nyssa credited her with shaping their turn toward ascetic discipline and theological life.
Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Revered In
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source 2. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition
F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005View the Source 3. Wikidata: Macrina the Younger
- Wikidata Q239081, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
- Wikidata Q239081, P140 claim (w-bbfill-div-character-0926)
- Wikidata Q239081, P411 claim (w-bbfill-div-character-0926)
- Wikidata Q239081, P570 claim (w-bbfill-div-character-0926)
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