ST MACRINA THE ELDER - 14 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 14th of January

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST MACRINA THE ELDER, CONFESSOR

Our knowledge of the life of the elder Macrina is derived mainly from the testimony of the great Cappadocian Fathers of the Church, her grandchildren: Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, and the panegyric of St Gregory of Nazianzus on St Basil.

THE MOTHER OF THE ELDER BASIL

She was the mother of the elder Basil, the father of Basil, Gregory, and other children whose names are known to us, including Macrina the Younger. Her home was at Neocaesarea in Pontus. 

In her childhood she was acquainted with St Gregory Thaumaturgus, first bishop of her native town. As this venerable doctor, who had won Neocaesarea almost completely for Christianity, died between 270 and 275, St Macrina must have been born before 270. 

A CONFESSOR OF FAITH

During the Diocletian persecution she fled from her native town with her husband, of whose name we are ignorant, and had to endure many privations. She was thus a confessor of the Faith during the last violent storm that burst over the early Church. 

SHE EXERCISED GREAT INFLUENCE ON THEIR RELIGIOUS TRAINING

On the intellectual and religious training of St Basil and his elder brothers and sisters, she exercised a great influence, implanting in their minds those seeds of piety and that ardent desire for Christian perfection which were later to attain so glorious a growth. 

As St Basil was probably born in 331, St Macrina must have died early in the fourth decade of the fourth century. Her feast is celebrated on January 14. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)