Macrina the Elder

Saint Macrina the Elder was the mother of Basil the Elder and the grandmother of Saints Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Peter of Sebaste, Naucratius and Macrina the Younger. She was born before the year 270 at Neocaesarea in Pontus (in some notes at Caesarea in Cappadocia) and died, according to tradition, in the early 340s. She is commemorated on 14 January, and the Serbian Orthodox Church commemorates her on 30 May by the old calendar (12 June by the new).

The writings of her grandson Basil the Great show that she was a disciple of Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus of Neocaesarea and that his teachings, handed down through Macrina to her grandsons Basil and Gregory, counted for much in the spiritual formation of the two Cappadocian brothers. She lived at Neocaesarea and, according to Gregory of Nazianzus, in the persecution of Christians in the time of Galerius and Diocletian she fled with her husband, named Basil, to a mountainous region on the shores of the Black Sea. Their property was confiscated, but they did not grieve over it. Left with nothing, they settled in a forest, where they stayed seven years. According to Christian tradition, by God's providence goats came down from the mountain and fed them with their milk. According to the Serbian source, both died in the fourth century after many sufferings for the faith in Christ, and according to the Romanian one her husband died during the persecution. When the persecution ended, Macrina and her family returned to Neocaesarea. She remained a widow and is regarded as the patron of widows and a helper against poverty.