Primary source · Koine Greek
The Life of Macrina
Gregory of Nyssa · c. AD 380–383
What this text is
Gregory’s memoir of his sister — teacher of the family, founder of the Annisa community — with the deathbed prayer that is one of the jewels of early Christian literature.
Profile of Macrina the Younger →
Interlinear passages
Word-for-word glosses of the original; the complete public-domain translation is linked below.
The deathbed prayer
ΣὺThouἔλυσαςhast loosedἡμῖν,for us,Κύριε,O Lord,τοῦofθανάτουdeathτὸνtheφόβον.fear
Public-domain translations
W. K. Lowther Clarke (1916)
Thou, O Lord, hast freed us from the fear of death; Thou hast made the end of this life the beginning to us of true life… and dost give our bodies to rest in sleep in due season, and awakest them again at the last trump.
Manuscript witnesses
Gregory-of-Nyssa corpus manuscripts
10th c. onwardThe Life in the Nyssen dossier, with the Letter on her death.
Provenance
Written c. AD 382–383, after the deathbed at Annisa
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Grégoire de Nysse: Vie de sainte Macrine (SC 178)Pierre Maraval, 1971Critical edition with French translation.
- Macrina the Younger, Philosopher of GodAnna M. Silvas, 2008Study with fresh translations of the Macrina dossier.