Marcellina

Saint Marcellina was the elder sister of Saint Ambrose of Milan and of Satyrus, a virgin consecrated to God. She was born around 327 or 330, according to some sources at Trier in Gaul, according to others at Rome, the daughter of the Praetorian prefect of Gaul, and she reposed in 397 or 398.

After their father's death, around 354, the family moved to Rome. It appears that after the death of their parents Marcellina took charge of the upbringing of her younger brothers, Ambrose and Satyrus, and passed on to them the desire not merely to appear virtuous but to become truly so. She received the veil of consecrated virginity from Pope Liberius, in 353 according to the calendars, and led a life of continual abstinence and prayer, a model among the maidens of Milan. Ambrose dedicated to her his work on virginity, written in 377, and in his discourse on the death of Satyrus he speaks of the warm family affection that bound the three together. Paulinus the Deacon, who wrote a Life of Ambrose at the request of Augustine of Hippo, learned the details of the bishop's life from Marcellina.

She survived her brother by a year and was buried in the crypt under the altar of the Basilica of Saint Ambrose in Milan, where her remains are enshrined. She is commemorated on 17 July as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.