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 Basil
the Great is remembered as the founder of Eastern monasticism. All Eastern
Orthodox monks are Basilian monks and follow a variation of the monastic
rule that he outlined. However, it is often overlooked that the community of
monks organized by Basil was preceded and inspired by a community of nuns
organized by his sister, Macrina.
Macrina the Elder lived in the days of the Emperor Diocletian, who made a
determined effort to destroy the Christian faith. She and her husband fled
into hiding, and survived into the time of Constantine. One of their sons,
Basil the Elder, and his wife Emmelia, had several distinguished sons,
including Basil the Great (see 14 June), Gergory of Nyssa (see 9 March),
Peter of Sebastea, Naucratios, and (according to one ambiguously worded
communication) Dios of Antioch.
Their oldest offspring, however, was their daughter Macrina (called Macrina
the Younger to distinguish her from her grandmother). She was betrothed at
the age of twelve, after the custom of the day, but when her fiance died,
she determined to devote her life to prayer and contemplation and to works
of charity. After the death of her father, she and her mother formed a
community of women who shared her goals. She often brought poor and hungry
women home to be fed, clothed, nursed, or otherwise taken care of, and many
eventually joined the community, as did many women of means.
After the death of their parents, Macrina was chiefly responsible for the
upbringing of her ten younger brothers. When they were disposed to be
conceited about their intellectual accomplishments, she deflated them with
affectionate but pointed jibes. Her example encouraged some of them to
pursue the monastic ideal, and to found monastic communities for men. (Dios
founded one of the most celebrated monasteries in Constantinople.) Three of
them (Basil, Gregory, Peter) became bishops, and all of them were leading
contenders for the faith of Nicea against the Arians.
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