St. Macrina the Younger

St. Macrina the Younger (c. 330 – 379) was born in Cappadocia into one of the most remarkable Christian families in history — granddaughter of St. Macrina the Elder and eldest sister of Sts. Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Peter of Sebaste. Betrothed as a girl, she chose consecrated virginity after her intended husband died, and devoted herself to prayer, asceticism, and the care of her widowed mother and younger siblings, exercising a deep influence on Basil's own conversion to the ascetic life.

With her mother she transformed the family estate at Annesi, on the river Iris in Pontus, into a monastic community of consecrated women, becoming one of the pioneers of organized female monasticism in the East. Her brother Gregory of Nyssa recorded her holy death in his Life of Macrina and portrayed her as a wise teacher in his dialogue On the Soul and the Resurrection, in which she discourses like a Christian Socrates on the last things. She is venerated as a saint in both East and West.