Saint Macrina the Elder

Also known as

• Macrina of Caesarea
• Macrina of Neo-Caesarea
• Macrina the Senior

Memorial

• 14 January

Profile

Grandmother of Saint Basil the Great, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Saint Peter of Sebaste, and Saint Macrina the Younger, and apparently raised Basil. Spiritual student of Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus. She and her husband lived in hiding in a forest at Pontus for seven years during the persecutions of Diocletian, nearly starving several times. Widowed.

Died

• c.340

Canonized

• Pre-Congregation

Patronage

• against poverty
• poor people
• widows

Representation

• hermitess with two stags near her
• hermitess with two hinds near her

Additional Information

• Abbé Stéphane Ansart
• Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
• Catholic Online
• Catholic Encyclopedia
• Heiligen 3s
• Katherine Rabenstein
• Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

MLA Citation

• “Saint Macrina the Elder“. Saints.SQPN.com. 13 January 2013. Web. 19 May 2013. <>