Saint Macrina the Younger

Macrina was the elder sister of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, born around 327 in Caesarea, Cappadocia. She was raised by her devout mother, Emmelia, and had a decisive influence on her brothers' spiritual formation. She was engaged to be married, but when her fiance died before the wedding she chose not to marry anyone else, regarding Christ as her eternal bridegroom.

Together with her mother she withdrew to a community of women in Pontus, near the river Iris, which she turned into a convent where enslaved and free members lived with equal rights. She spent her life in study of Scripture, prayer and good works. She died in 379; her brother Gregory of Nyssa wrote her Life and a dialogue, "On the Soul and the Resurrection", inspired by their last conversations.