Macrina the Younger was a fourth-century ascetic of Cappadocia and Pontus, the eldest of the nine children of a celebrated Christian family of Caesarea. Born about 327 to Basil the Elder and Emmelia, she was the granddaughter of Macrina the Elder, after whom she was named. Four of her younger brothers and sisters are themselves venerated as saints, and she is remembered above all as the teacher and spiritual guide of her brothers, who included Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Peter of Sebaste. She is commemorated on July 19.
According to her brother Gregory of Nyssa, whose Life of Macrina is the principal source for her, her father arranged a marriage for her in her youth, but her betrothed died before the wedding. Macrina declined to marry another, holding that her promise bound her to a single husband and regarding Christ as her eternal bridegroom. She resolved to remain with her mother, and together they withdrew to one of the family estates, where Macrina shaped the household into an ascetic community of virgins.
Following the death of her father, and as her siblings grew, Macrina persuaded her widowed mother Emmelia to embrace the monastic life alongside her. Within the community she made no distinction of rank: by tradition all its members were free, and former servants shared the same obligations and dignity as those who had been their mistresses. After her mother's death Macrina led the community of nuns. She devoted herself to prayer and to the spiritual formation of her younger brother Peter, later bishop of Sebaste, directing him toward the ascetic life.
Gregory of Nyssa recorded his final visit to his dying sister and the conversation they held on the soul and the resurrection, which he set down in the dialogue that bears that name. The account relates that, even in her last illness, Macrina refused a bed and chose to lie upon the ground. She died in 379 and was buried in the grave of her parents, her brother Gregory delivering the eulogy.
