The Nicene Age · AD 313–400
Macrina the Elder
c. 270 – c. 340 · Confessor · Grandmother & teacher of the Cappadocians · Neocaesarea, Pontus
The Nicene Age
Who Macrina the Elder was
Grandmother of Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, and Macrina the Younger, and the living link between the Cappadocian saints and the apostolic age of their region: she and her husband kept the faith of Gregory Thaumaturgus, and during the persecutions of Diocletian and Maximinus fled to hide in the Pontic forests for seven years, losing their property as confessors. Basil credited her with forming his earliest faith — “the teachings of blessed Macrina, which I received as a child.” The matriarch who transmitted a persecuted, Origenist-Thaumaturgan Christianity into the family that would define orthodoxy.
Also listed in women.
Common questions
When did Macrina live?
Macrina the Elder is dated c. 270 – c. 340 in the archive, which places Macrina in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
Which early sources mention Macrina?
Macrina the Elder is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Macrina from?
The archive associates Macrina the Elder with Neocaesarea, Pontus. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.
Who were Macrina’s contemporaries?
The archive links Macrina the Elder to 5 other figures, including Gregory Thaumaturgus, Basil the Great, Emmelia of Caesarea and Macrina the Younger. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Primary-source mentions (2)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Letter 204 (to the Neocaesareans)
c. AD 375What clearer proof can there be of my faith than that I was brought up by my grandmother, a blessed woman, Macrina, who taught me the words of the most blessed Gregory?Basil the Great · source text
Life of Macrina 2 (the confessor-grandmother in the family memory)
c. AD 382Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 272 · Aurelian awards the Antioch church, AD 272
- AD 301 · Hripsime and her company, AD 301
- AD 303 · The Great Persecution begins, AD 303
- AD 303 · The search of the church at Cirta, AD 303
- AD 306 · The Council of Elvira, AD 306
- AD 311 · Galerius’ edict of Serdica, AD 311
- AD 313 · The Edict of Milan, AD 313
- AD 314 · The Council of Arles, AD 314
- AD 320 · Silvanus tried before Zenophilus, AD 320
- AD 325 · The Council of Nicaea, AD 325
- AD 339 · The persecution of Shapur II, AD 339
Place
Places served
The 2 places the sources put Macrina, in the order the record moves through them. This is what the sources attest, not a reconstructed route.
- 1Neocaesarea
- 2Pontusprovince only