The Forgotten Church Mothers, Part 4: Remembering a Church Grandmother

A Word from Bob: You’re reading Part 4 of a four-part blog mini-series on The Forgotten Church Mothers. When we ponder early church history, our minds naturally focus on the Church Fathers. Sadly, we normally fail even to consider the Church Mothers. In our modern Western Evangelical world, where the worth and role of women is often debated—and demeaned—it is helpful to learn from church history. These posts are taken from my book, Sacred Friendships: Celebrating the Legacy of Women Heroes of the Faith. You can read Part 1 here: Mothers of the Church Fathers. You can read Part 2 here: Lamenting Loss, Gripping Grace. You can read Part 3 here: Mingling Spiritual Friendship & Spiritual Direction.

The Lasting Legacy of Macrina the Elder

Macrina the Elder (270-340) learned the Christian life in the school of suffering.

She was born sometime near 270 AD in Neocaesarea in Pontus (Asia Minor). During the persecution of Diocletian, Macrina fled the city with her husband and they lived in hiding in a forest near Pontus for seven years, nearly starving several times.

Macrina’s family members are unique in the history of Christianity. Her grandsons, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, both Church Fathers, are the most famous of her lineage.

However, they are not the only reason why generations have long revered the family. She nurtured three generations of Christian leaders passing the torch of faith from herself to her daughter Emmelia, and then to Emmelia’s children Macrina the Younger, Peter, Basil, and Gregory, all of whom history has honored as saints. Most importantly:

“What is pertinent is the fact that the family recognized the women to be the guides directing them all to their spiritual ends.”[i]

Truth & Life: Passing on the Faith

Macrina’s grandson, Basil, writes admiringly of his grandmother’s mentoring.

“What clearer proof of our faith could there be than that we were brought up by our grandmother, a blessed woman. I am speaking of the illustrious Macrina, by whom we were taught the words of the most blessed Gregory (Thaumaturgus), which, having preserved until her time by uninterrupted tradition, she also guarded, and she formed and molded me, still a child, to the doctrines of piety.”[ii]

What a fascinating concluding phrase, “formed and molded me . . . to the doctrines of piety.” Macrina’s discipleship model focused not just on doctrine, not just on piety, but on both—truth and life. In this, she followed in the heritage of the Apostle Paul who passed on the faith to Timothy with these words:

“Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them . . .” (1 Timothy 4:16a).

Scripture for Life

Like Macrina the Elder, her daughter Emmelia played a dynamic part in the spiritual development of her children, especially her firstborn, Macrina the Younger. Gregory of Nyssa tells us in his story of his sister:

“The education of the child was her mother’s task; she did not, however, employ the usual worldly method of education, but such parts of inspired Scripture as you would think were incomprehensible to young children were the subject of the girl’s studies; in particular the Wisdom of Solomon, and those parts of it especially which have an ethical bearing. Nor was she ignorant of any part of the Psalter, but at stated times she recited every part of it.”[iii]

Indeed:

“When she rose from bed, or engaged in household duties, or rested, or partook of food, or retired from table, when she went to bed or rose in the night for prayer, the Psalter was her constant companion, like a good fellow-traveler that never deserted her.”[iv]

Like mother, like daughter. Emmelia’s guiding emphasized truth and life by inculcating the “ethical bearing” of Proverbs. She also followed the pedagogical insight and teaching methodology of Deuteronomy 6:7:

“Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

From Generation to Generation: Mentoring Other Mentors

Emmelia’s life lessons stuck. Macrina the Younger discipled her younger brother, Peter.

“She took him soon after birth from the nurse’s breast and reared him herself and educated him on a lofty system of training, practicing him from infancy in his holy studies” and eventually became “all things to the lad—father, teacher, tutor, mother, giver of all good advice.”[v]

In turn, Peter applied well his sister’s life lessons.

“Scorning to occupy his time with worldly studies, and having in nature a sufficient instructor in all good knowledge, and always looking to his sister as the model of all good, he advanced to such a height of virtue that in his subsequent life he seemed in no whit inferior to the great Basil. But at this time he was all in all to his sister and mother, co-operating with them in the pursuit of the angelic life.”[vi]

In later years, Peter and Macrina the Younger administered the double monastery at Annesi, discipling yet another generation of young believers.

Thus in yet another way, Macrina’s family followed the discipleship model of the Apostle Paul who exhorted Timothy:

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2).

Macrina the Elder’s family mentored four generations and beyond. Macrina the Elder provided guidance to Emmelia; Emmelia provided spiritual direction to Macrina the Younger; Macrina the Younger discipled Peter; Peter mentored those at the double monastery; and those at the monasteries passed the torch of truth to still others.

Join the Conversation

Macrina the Elder balanced truth and life (doctrine and application) in her spiritual direction. Do you tend more toward the doctrine side or more toward application? Why? How can you better integrate the two, as Paul did with Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16?

Throughout this four-part mini-series, it has been clear that in church history women have not taken a back seat to anyone in the personal ministry of the Word—in one-another ministry. Whether you are a man or a woman, what do you do with this reality?