4th century
Saint Emmelia
Mother of Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Peter of Sebaste and Saint Macrina, from Caesarea in Cappadocia.
Biography
Emmelia came from a devout family in Caesarea in Cappadocia; her father was martyred in the last persecutions. She married Basil the Elder and they had nine or ten children, among them Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Peter of Sebaste and the nun Macrina.
She endured many sorrows - the death of her parents before her marriage, of her husband just after their son Peter was born, and of her son Naucratius - which she faced with faith and patience, teaching her children mainly by her own example.
She spent her final years with her daughter Macrina, living an ascetic life, and ended her days as a nun under her own daughter as abbess.