July: Day 19: Venerable Macrina, Sister of Basil the Great

 

July: Day 19:
Venerable Macrina, Sister of Basil the Great
 
(The Fundamental Principles of Christian Upbringing for the Salvation of Oneself and our Children)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. An example of how beneficial a good religious and moral education is for a child, for a family, and for the whole of society in general, can be found in the life of our Venerable Mother Macrina, who is remembered today and who lived in the second half of the 4th century. The granddaughter of martyrs, the eldest daughter of Basil and Emmelia of Cappadocia, Macrina was raised by her parents, as it is said in her life, “not in Hellenic fables and poetic verses, as parents usually raised their children then (and as they partly raise children in our schools now), but from the Wisdom of Solomon and the Psalms of David and from other books of Divine Scripture, choosing such excellent verses that are both prayers and glorifications of God, and good moral teaching. And the singing of prayers, appropriate to each time and divided into parts, rising from bed and taking up some work, sitting down to dinner, and after dinner giving thanks: at midday and evening she did not pass without psalmody, and before going to bed she had the established prayer performed by her. Moreover, she was taught by her mother in the art of handiwork suitable for young ladies, and she was not allowed to spend her time in idleness and childish games, but was always engaged either in reading books or in manual tasks." This constituted the upbringing of the young Macrina.

And what came out of such, as some might say, one-sided, narrow education of Macrina? By means of such education, we will say without hesitation, an amazing woman was formed, in the opinion of all who knew her, even the pagans - a great holy righteous woman emerged, according to the testimony of the entire Christian Church.

Macrina showed the greatness of her Christian spirit even in her youth by the fact that, having been once betrothed to the groom of her choice, she did not dare to betroth herself to another when her first groom, by the will of the Lord, died prematurely. She decided after that to remain a virgin forever for the good of her not small family, despite the fact that, due to her beauty and her high qualities, many noble youths sought her hand.

After the death of her father, Macrina became an indispensable assistant to her mother.

It may be said that it was chiefly to her influence that the entire numerous family of her parents owed those high moral qualities and the important social position which its members occupied in their time. Of the nine souls of the children of Basil and Emmelia of Cappadocia, not to mention the five sisters of Macrina, whom she instructed and provided for, all four of her brothers were led by Macrina onto the path of high piety and heavenly glory. Her brother Naukratios was also much indebted to Macrina, whom she inclined by her pious conversations to a pure ascetic life, in which he died in the desert. The other brothers, Peter, Gregory and Basil, were elected to episcopal sees for their high spiritual qualities and became famous in them. Gregory, known as Bishop of Nyssa, and Basil, who earned the name of the Great, were also much indebted to her. It was to her that the great Saint of the universal Church, Basil, owed the greatness of his soul and the greatness of his glorious deeds and teachings for the benefit of the Church. When Basil returned to his parents' house after many years of wandering through different cities to study science, Macrina noticed in him a proud conceit and, in general, a not entirely Christian disposition. And in a short time, as the life of Venerable Macrina says, with her meek and God-inspired words she managed to bring him to such humility that he decided to leave all worldly vanity and devote himself entirely to monastic life and service to the Church. Her father's entire household with its male and female slaves and her mother Emmelia herself owed Macrina the fact that they all spent the rest of their days in monastic exploits.

Macrina established a women's monastery in Cappadocia, in which, under her leadership, in addition to the above-mentioned persons, many other noble virgins and widows labored, dedicating themselves to the service of the Lord. In a word, as Saint Basil, Macrina's brother, laid the foundation for the correct male monastic community life in our Orthodox Church, so Venerable Macrina, his sister, laid the foundation for the correct female monastic life. Her holy brothers, Basil and Gregory, spoke of their great sister with the deepest reverence, the latter of whom was a witness to her blessed end. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, among other things, spoke of the Venerable Macrina, that “during the famine, the wheat given by her hands to those who asked for it, and bread to those who were hungry, did not run out, that in illnesses she gave quick healing, cast out demons, foresaw the hidden and predicted the future.”

II. Such, my brethren, are the fruits of a good religious education, educating not only for earth, but also for heaven. Yes, the words of the Apostle of Christ are true: “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4:8). Let us, parents, follow the example of Venerable Macrina, and maintain in our homes the spirit of holy faith and churchliness, for the good of ourselves and our children!

Let us take care that our children are not deprived of a religious and moral education, in which attention is paid not only to the body and earthly objects, but mainly to the soul and the spiritual world.

Let us make every effort to educate not only our children, but ourselves, for heaven.

Here are the most important rules of this heavenly education for Christians:

a) First of all, it is necessary to accustom the mind to turn more often to heaven, to God, to the eternity prepared for us and awaiting us. Since for a layman this is not an easy matter, especially if he lives in constant cares about worldly things, or in contentment and well-being, because what the mind is accustomed to occupy itself with love, to that it most easily turns: then for this it is necessary to visit the temple of God more often, to read the Holy Scriptures, and also to converse with people experienced in the spiritual life. The Holy Church is the best educator of Christians: the Lord in His great generosity has provided within it all the means for our spiritual upbringing; "all divine powers for life and godliness" are given to us therein.

But we must also reflect from time to time that everything earthly is too fickle and passes away very quickly, leaving only emptiness in the heart of a person devoted to the world; that our soul is eternal and it is necessary to take care of it. It seems to us that this life is rather long and many think that it is given for pleasure, and therefore they catch pleasures, hurry to have fun before the time is gone, leaving the eternal, heavenly needs of the soul without any respect and care. How much error there is here! This life seems rather long because of our limitations, because of our blindness, because of our short-sightedness: experienced people say that our earthly life is nothing more than vapor, which barely appears, as it already disappears. “What is your life?” asks the Apostle James: “For vapor is that which appears a little, and then vanishes away.” And all people, having lived to a ripe old age, usually say that their whole past life is like a past dream. But if our soul is eternal, and everything earthly quickly passes, not satisfying it at all; then it is easy for everyone to conclude from this that the present life is not given for pleasures, which are nothing more than a bait of the sinful world, like a snare in which cruel, incorporeal fishmen catch our soul, although one cannot reject innocent pleasures, which, however, have their time and measure. The present life is given to us for the revelation of our spiritual powers in harmonious harmony.

b) Secondly, it is necessary to acquire a pure, contrite and humble heart, simple, soft and gentle, which would easily feel the poison of every sin, which would ache from everything that is contrary to the most holy Lord, and by its pain would draw forth tears that cleanse the filth of the heart; it is necessary to accustom it to sincerity and to sincere love for all people and in particular to compassionate love for the poor and unfortunate. God will never despise a contrite and humble heart, and the pure in heart will see God in the future life, and even in this life only the pure in heart are capable of sincerely loving God and their neighbors. Simplicity and sincerity of heart are pleasing to God. The Holy Apostles were not chosen from among the wise and intelligent people of this age, because they are for the most part very complex; but from infants, that is, from people who, in their concepts, simplicity and innocence, are like infants. Earthly wisdom is sometimes ashamed of the simplicity of the gospel, but this simplicity is the very wisdom that all people must learn if they value eternal salvation. Yes, from the Gospel and the Apostolic Epistles we all need to learn simplicity and sincerity, purity and love. "Unless you turn and become like children," says the Savior, "you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

c) Finally, thirdly, it is necessary to acquire love for virtue or for holy life. There is much evil in the world, and it “lies all in wickedness” from the time of the first sin; therefore, people who are evil and wicked by nature, inclined to sin, must take care to avoid opportunities to sin and look for opportunities to do a good deed. And an opportunity to do a good deed is presented to everyone - in every calling. Each calling from God and the conscientious fulfillment of its duties is already a good deed, although one can find an opportunity to do many other good deeds. Good deeds are necessary for us for the future life. The Lord God has such a law that all people, like plants, which are born with the ability to produce fruits from themselves and thereby be useful to living creatures, must also certainly give from themselves the fruits of good deeds; otherwise, He threatens us with cutting down, as in the parable one gardener wanted to cut down the barren fig tree, or binding into sheaves intended for burning. The world is God's threshing floor. On this threshing floor there is wheat and tares, i.e. virtuous people, pleasing to God and useful to people, and wicked people, inept at any good deed, contrary to God, and sometimes of little or no use to people. But the word of God is true, that only "the wheat is gathered" will be "into the barn" of heaven, i.e. into the Kingdom of Heaven, and the "tares", or unfit grass, will be burned "by unquenchable fire", or the fire of eternal torment.

III. Therefore, brethren, in the worldly affairs of our calling, let us educate ourselves for heaven, just as we give our children, in their worldly education, spiritual education or direction, and let us do this holy work with the same zeal with which the now blessed Venerable Macrina did it.

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.