Macrina The Younger

c.328-379/380. Eastern ascetic. Granddaughter of Macrina the Elder, she was born in Neocaesarea, Cappadocia, sister of Basil* of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa.* She won her brothers Basil and Peter (of Sebaste) to religious vocations. While Basil was choosing the ascetic life, she was establishing one of the earliest communities of women ascetics on the family estate in Pontus. Returning from the Synod of Antioch in 379. Gregory visited her and at the request of the monk Olympus wrote her life Vita Macrinae Junioris, also providing details about her brothers. This book, together with Gregory's De Anima ac Resurrectione, gives a vivid account of their meeting on her deathbed. Manuscripts of this biography suggest that her cult spread through the Eastern churches; it came much later in the West.