Makrina the elder

Makrina the Elder (* around 260, † around 340) was an important member of the Christian community of Neocäsarea on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor . She was the grandmother of the holy siblings Makrina the Younger , Basil the Great , Gregory of Nyssa and Peter of Sebaste , on whom she had a formative influence.

Gregor von Nyssa names the grandmother in his sister's biography Makrina the Elder. J. a remarkable ( insignis ) woman who fought for Christ during the time of persecution .

Gregory of Nazianz mentions it in his funeral oration for Basil the Great. During the persecution under Maximinus Daia , Makrina and her husband fled to the Pontic Mountains . There the two of them endured hunger and the rigors of the weather for seven years.

Basil himself reports that Makrina was a student of Bishop Gregory of Neocäsarea († around 270). For him, Basil, she was the spiritual foster mother ( nutrix ) in her youth .

Makrina d. Ä. was not venerated as a saint anywhere in ancient times. It was not until the cardinal and church historian Cesare Baronio († 1607) added it to the Martyrologium Romanum and assigned it, for no apparent reason, January 14th as a day of remembrance.

literature

• Joseph-Marie Sauget: Article Santa Macrina l'Anziana . In: Enciclopedia Dei Santi , Rome 1998 ( digitized , Italian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sauget: "data evidentemente arbitraria"