Macrina: Mother of the Early Church
In the study of Patristics, a major
challenge is to understand the contributions of women. From the Latin, pater,
the term literally means ‘study of the fathers.’ What a tragedy that an
entire field of study in Christian history is named in such a way that masks,
excludes, and dismisses the influence of women during this time. It is
intellectually dishonest to assume that naming it as such has no ramifications
on how it is studied. Even more so than in our time, men were the primary
authors and architects behind church doctrine. There is very little written by
women during this time with just slightly more written about them. Because of
the lack of a literary footprint, it is easy to assume that they were not very involved.
To overcome this, we must study and look behind the men writing on the page to
see the women and mothers of the church that influenced them. Here we consider
how Macrina the Younger influenced theology and shaped the doctrine and mission
of the early church.
Macrina was born in Cappadocia around
AD 327 as the first of ten children to aristocratic parents who were wealthy
Christians. Their family had been Christian for some time, indeed some of their
ancestors had been persecuted for their faith. Her parents, Basil the Elder and
Emmelia, ensured she received a good education and she devoted herself to
Christ early in life. When she was twelve years old her father arranged her marriage,
but her fiancé died before it could occur. She resolved to never marry and took
on the unique role of a virgin-widow. After her father’s death she eschewed the
social norms and continued in her determination to remain single. She created a
rare, socially acceptable role for herself as a single woman and remained
financially independent. However, after allotting the inheritance among her
siblings, she gave her portion away to charity and convinced her mother to join
her in living a sacrificial life for the sake of others. They moved to the
family estate in Pontus and transformed it into a community of people with a
similar commitment to simple living, celibacy, and service. Though this type of
monastic body is not uncommon now, Macrina was a forerunner in her creation of
an ascetic communal living arrangement. At her death, the community was
comprised of men and women who related as equals, each taking on the role of
servant.
Since Macrina was content to live a
simple life of service, most of what we learn about her life is primarily from the
writings of her brothers, Gregory of Nyssa and Basil the Great. These brothers
are particularly important in the early church because of their work on the
doctrine of the Trinity. They both served as bishops and are regarded as great
theologians of their time. It is noteworthy that they considered Macrina their
teacher and role-model.
From Gregory we get a window into
the piety and sacrificial life of his beloved sister. He wrote two works
specifically about her. The first was a biography of her life focusing on her
last days. The second was a Platonic-style dialogue where he cast Macrina in
the role of teacher for a conversation about the nature of the resurrection. It
speaks volumes that he devoted the time and space to write such works, but the
choice to humbly place himself under her as her student is remarkable for
writings of this time. Upon further understanding of the depth of her impact in
the lives of her brothers it becomes easy to see her influence in their other
writings.
Gregory’s biography of her life is
entitled Vita S. Macrinae. The literary form cannot be regarded as a
work of history or biography in the modern sense of that term. The intent of
the work was not to provide a chronological factual record but instead to edify
the spiritual and moral lives of his readers using her as an example. It can be
regarded as an early example of hagiography: a type of writing about holy men
and women, particularly martyrs. However, it does not entirely conform to that
conventional structure either. Because of his close connection to Macrina it
resembles more of a family chronicle by someone who was a witness to and participant
in the events, not simply a narrator. It is a beautiful tribute to the life of
someone Gregory obviously admired and looked up to as an example of Christlikeness.
He begins his description of Macrina
by doubting whether it is right to even describe her as a woman. Her human nature
was so united with Christ that all aspects of her womanhood were subservient to
who she was in him, and he remarks she surpassed nature as in Galatians 3:28.[1]
Gregory believed she embodied the highest peak of human virtue through her
pursuit of philosophy. He proceeds to tell her life story, beginning with her
unique birth. Macrina was named after her paternal grandmother (Macrina the
Elder) but was given secret name in a vision at her birth. During Emmelia’s
labor she fell asleep and had a vision of a man who addressed the baby three
times as Thecla. Gregory concludes this dream was not necessarily meant to
proclaim the name for the child but instead to foretell what kind of life she
would lead.[2] Thecla
was a woman well-known to the people of that time who had great fame as a devoted
virginal servant of the Lord. Gregory insinuates that Macrina was called to
take up her mantle in similar service to God. He goes on to describe her early
life as one particularly influenced by her love for the scriptures as well as
her serious devotion to daily recitation and prayer times. As mentioned, her
betrothed died and she adopted a life of virginity, though her parents often
encouraged her to marry. She strongly maintained her decision and vowed to
never be separated from her mother.
She not only had a strong will to
determine her personal choices but also influenced the lives of her family. By
her own example she encouraged her family to pursue a monastic lifestyle. She
gave up the services of her maids and regarded herself as the same rank and
equal with the servants. After her father’s death she became a surrogate parent
to her siblings. Her youngest brother, Peter of Sebaste, was born around that
time and Macrina looked after him as her own. “She became all things to the lad
— father, teacher, guardian, mother, counsellor in all that was good.”[3]
Her influence on him undoubtedly contributed towards his future as a bishop and
his own commitment to an ascetic lifestyle.
After the death of the second eldest
brother, Naucratios, she consoled her mother and helped bring hope and healing by
encouraging her to rejoice in the goodness of life instead of despairing from
grief. Once the other daughters were married off, Macrina convinced her mother
to join her in renouncing a conventional life and induced her to a similar
non-materialistic lifestyle. They converted the family home into a monastery
and relinquished worldly goods.
Upon returning from school, her
brother Basil seemed to be conceited and puffed up by his training in rhetoric
and reveling in his oratory gifts. Gregory tells us:
She, however, took him in hand and drew him with such speed
towards the goal of philosophy that he withdrew from the worldly show and despised
the applause to be gained through eloquence, and went over of his own accord to
the life where one toils even with one’s own hands, thus providing for himself
through perfect renunciation a life that would lead without impediment to
virtue.[4]
This is indeed a remarkable change and gives us insight into
how important Macrina was in the life of her family. Basil the Great is the one
who would later be considered the Father of Monasticism in the Eastern Church. Without
her rebuke and sacrificial example would he have continued in his prideful way?
At the death of Emmelia she pronounced
blessings upon all her children. Macrina and Peter were there at her bedside.
Emmelia specially offered them to the Lord’s service as her first and last born,
both now leading the monastic community. Around the same time Basil the Great
was chosen to lead the church of Caesaraea and eight years later he died. This
death became a cause of grief for many in the world at large and Macrina
suffered inwardly at this third loss though she remained firm. Gregory compares
her to an athlete who could not be defeated.[5]
Even in grief she had trained her body to do what it should (1 Cor 9:27). Her
self-discipline was notable in all aspects of her life.
It is at this point in Gregory’s
biography that he inserts himself into the narrative by sharing his desire to
seek her sisterly consolation after the death of their brother. On his way to
visit, he has a dream in which he sees light shining from a holy relic. When he
arrives, he realizes his dream is being fulfilled in Macrina’s life as she is
ill and approaching death. Her gracious suffering even before her impending
death is extraordinary. He compares her with Job- suffering yet maintaining her
intellect.[6]
In conversation with him she contemplates higher matters and discusses the soul
and how death is a release from the world into resurrected life. It is here
that we interject Gregory’s second writing about Macrina.
Gregory’s additional work on Macrina
is a retelling of a conversation they had on her deathbed. After he had
completed her biography, he continued to mull over the discussion they had that
day. In writing On the Soul and Resurrection he was not simply reporting
their conversation, rather he intended it to dialogue with Aristotle’s On
the Soul. In places their conversation indirectly rejects some of Aristotle’s
conclusions.[7] Though
it may not be a work of direct reporting, it is a faithful reimagining of the
type of theological and philosophical exchanges they had as a family. His work
here is our best evidence of the intellectual ability of Macrina as she is
positioned as his teacher and guide. In the Platonic-style dialogue Macrina is cast
as the master philosopher, like Socrates in the Phaedo. Gregory positions
himself as her student and his “willingness for the master to become or even
appear by his own admission as the pupil of another—and that one a woman—is an
extraordinary device.”[8]
Drawing from her experience Macrina connects the virginal life of virtue with
Christian hope of resurrection. She explains the existence of the soul and contends
it is the life-force of the body. The bodily resurrection to come is considered
the hope of Christians and what is done in the earthly body matters and
necessitates a life of virtue. Macrina’s commitment to celibacy and self-denial
was a way to embody the hope she had in Christ to fulfill all her needs.
Returning to his biography Gregory
continues to recount the day before her death. She exhorted him to be of good
courage even in the face of her own death. He notes that she was looking
towards the crown of righteousness and saying, ‘I have fought the good fight
and I have finished my course and I have kept the faith’ (2 Tim 4:7-8). In
conversation, Gregory complains about difficulties he was having after being
driven into exile by the emperor because of his faith as well as being the
arbiter of distressing church disputes. She rebukes him to remember his divine
blessings and to “remedy the thanklessness of his soul” and to “recognize the
cause of such blessings, the prayers of your parents are lifting you on high,
since you have nothing in you, or very little, to equip you for this.”[9]
Gregory responds in humility and Cohick and Hughes rightly remark, “For
Gregory, Macrina is the virgin-philosopher, the wise woman who does not shirk
responsibility or mince words.”[10]
On the last day of her life, she
turned from conversation with Gregory and kept her gaze toward her unseen
Bridegroom. Gregory noted her prayers indicated her longing for Christ, and he
believed there was no doubt she was in the presence of God.[11]
Nearing death her prayers became mere movements of her lips, and she completed
the traditional evening prayers of thanksgiving. After that she made the sign
of the cross and her life ended. At her death, the whole community was
overwhelmed with grief and Gregory had to restore calm and remind them of her
teachings on hope. Hitchcock remarks on how her presence within the community
reflected the true nature of God. “It is proper to say that the community
Macrina found in her singleness more closely resembled the community within the
Trinity than does the community of marriage. Macrina found community in the
church, the only eternal human institution.”[12]
Surely this practical example of her life in community was a living witness of
the unity of the Trinity and influential in her brothers’ theology.
The scriptures are reflected in her
life of sacrifice but are seen most poignantly in her death. In life she
rightly regarded Jesus’ commands not to worry about what to eat or drink but to
strive first for the kingdom of God (Matt 6:31-33). Her regular prayer each day
and memorization of the Psalter exhibited her awareness of the need to pray without
ceasing (1 Thes 5:17) and hide the Word of God in her heart (Ps 119:11). She
took seriously the admonition to sell her possessions and give money to the
poor and awaited her treasure in heaven (Matt 19:21). She followed the example
of the believers in Acts who did not have needy people among them because they
sold their lands and brought the proceeds to be shared (Acts 4:34-35). In her
death she resembled the face of an angel as Stephen did (Acts 6:15). Her
perspective on her death was that of Paul when he said, “what is sown is
perishable, what is raised is imperishable” (1 Cor 15:42). In her death prayer
she references the final trumpet (1 Cor 15:51-52), gives thanks to Jesus who
crushed the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15), and praises him for opening the
path of resurrection through his own death (Rom 6:5, 8).
In preparing her body for burial,
Gregory and a few of the women try to determine how to dress her. One woman
says Macrina’s only desire was to be adorned with a pure life. They clothed her
in fine linen, dressed as a bride. For the procession they covered her body
with a dark cloak, but her body shone through it with divine power, just like the
holy relic from Gregory’s dream. In speaking of the deathbed scenes in Life of
Macrina, Dedon and Trostyanskiy say, “The understated pathos of this setting draws immediately readers’
attention and ushers them into the larger-than-life portrait of a woman whose
claim to holiness is to be revealed most dazzlingly at the end.”[13]
Her radiant beauty in death is the ‘clean mirror’ of a life that fully reflected
God in the end. They further state, “His witness to Macrina’s theosis is a
commentary on the Biblical and Christian doctrine of the divine logos becoming
flesh, of a personal God wanting to experience human life in order to save his
falling creation.”[14]
The juxtaposition of the somber deathbed scenes with her radiant life lends
weight to Gregory’s portrayal of a woman who reflects Christ-like sacrifice. Just
as her unity within community displayed a Trinitarian ethos, her participation
with Christ in his life, sufferings, and death exemplified the reality of
Christ’s participation in humanity.
Studying Macrina’s life has been
such an encouragement to me. In reading theology and patristics, we encounter
so few women who left an obvious mark on the history of Christianity. Their
influence is hidden; their names are unremembered. Macrina embodied the apostle
Peter’s charge to live her life in such a way that others could observe her
pure, reverent life and her gentle and peaceful spirit, being won over without
a word (1 Pet 3:1-4). Her life shines forth as an example of a woman who made
choices to honor God no matter what her parents wanted, or society expected out
of her. However, she was not silent. She spoke out against error in the lives
of others but had so won their hearts and affections that they were willing to
humbly listen. Who could argue against her example when she called them to
task? Even if I never write great works or participate in theological councils,
God has granted me influence by how I live my life and where I choose to spend
my relational capital. I do not need to build up a great name for myself, but I
must decrease so Christ can increase in my life. Macrina’s hope of the coming
resurrection is inspirational and fuels my desire to reflect the beauty of
Christ in my earthly life.
Every time
I read the word ‘patristics’ or ‘church fathers’ I silently say ‘early church
theologians’ in my head and remember Macrina. I do this to remind myself that
the contributions of this time were not simply from men. We must reclaim the
stories of women from history to appreciate the unique ways they have
influenced the church.
Bibliography
Cohick, Lynn H, and Amy Brown
Hughes. 2017. Christian Women in the Patristic World : Their Influence,
Authority, and Legacy in the Second through Fifth Centuries. Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Baker Academic. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.dtl.idm.oclc.org/lib/dtl/detail.action?docID=5215214
Dedon, Theodore Grey, and Sergey
Trostyanskiy, eds. Love, Marriage and Family in Eastern Orthodox
Perspective. Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias
Press, 2016. doi:10.31826/9781463237028.
Drury, John L. 2005. “Gregory of
Nyssa's Dialogue with Macrina: The Compatibility of Resurrection of the Body
and Immortality of the Soul.” Theology Today 62 (2): 210–22.
doi:10.1177/004057360506200206.
Gregory of Nyssa. The Life of
Macrina. Translated by Anna M. Silvas. Pages 93–148 in Macrina the Younger,
Philosopher of God. Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts 22. Turnhout: Brepols,
2008.
———. On the Soul and the
Resurrection. Translated by Anna M. Silvas. Pages 149–246 in Macrina the
Younger, Philosopher of God. Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts 22. Turnhout:
Brepols, 2008.
Hitchcock, Christina S. 2018. The
Significance of Singleness : A Theological Vision for the Future of the Church.
Grand Rapids: Baker Academic. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.dtl.idm.oclc.org/lib/dtl/reader.action?docID=5482794
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2011. Women, Writing, Theology : Transforming a Tradition of Exclusion.
Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.dtl.idm.oclc.org/lib/dtl/detail.action?docID=1036996
Levering, Matthew. 2018. Dying
and the Virtues. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.dtl.idm.oclc.org/lib/dtl/reader.action?docID=5210960
Miller, Patricia Cox, and Patricia
Cox Miller. Women in Early Christianity : Translations from Greek Texts.
Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2012. http://kcl.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=3135089.
Patricia Wilson-Kastner. “Macrina:
Virgin and Teacher.” Andrews University Seminary Studies 17,
no. 1 (2018). http://web.a.ebscohost.com.gordonconwell.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=1de984b2-445e-456c-9963-de2ada48d1d7%40sdc-v-sessmgr02
Petersen, Joan M. 1996. Handmaids
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Christian Centuries. Cistercian Studies Series, 143. Kalamazoo, Mich.:
Cistercian Publications.
Silvas, Anna, and Gregory. Macrina
the Younger, Philosopher of God. Medieval Women, V. 22. Turnhout, Belgium:
Brepols, 2008.
Smith, J. Warren. “Macrina, Tamer of
Horses and Healer of Souls: Grief and the Therapy of Hope in Gregory of Nyssa's
‘De Anima Et Resurrectione.’” The Journal of Theological Studies 52,
no. 1 (2001): 37–60.
Sunberg, Carla D. Cappadocian
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Gregory. Cambridge, United Kingdom: James Clarke, 2018. https://www-jstor-org.dtl.idm.oclc.org/stable/j.ctvj4svtk
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