Ascetical WorksCatholic University of America Press
St. Gregory of Nyssa
ISBN: 0813209692
price: $29.95 paperback
In the Christian world of the fourth century, the family of
St. Gregory of Nyssa was distinguished for its leadership in
civic and religious affairs in the region of the Roman Empire
known as Pontus. Cardinal Newman, in an essay on the trials of
St. Basil, refers to the family circle which produced these two
eminent Fathers as 'a sort of nursery of bishops and saints.'
From St. Gregory's life of his sister, St. Macrina, a work
included in this volume, we learn of the fortitude of the three
preceding generations. On her death-bed, St. Macrina, recalling
details of their family history, speaks of a great-grandfather
martyred and all his property confiscated, and grandparents
deprived of their possessions at the time of the Diocletian
persecutions. Their father, Basil of Caesarea, a successful
rhetorician, outstanding for his judgment and well known for the
dignity of his life, died leaving to his wife, Emmelia, the care
of four sons and five daughters. St. Gregory praises his mother
for her virtue and for her eagerness to have her children
educated in Holy Scripture. After managing their estate and
arranging for the future of her children, she was persuaded by
St. Macrina to retire from the world and to enter a life in
common with her maids as sisters and equals. This community of
women would have been a counterpart of a monastery founded nearby
by St. Basil on the banks of the Iris River. In a moving scene,
St. Gregory tells of his mother's death at a rich old age in the
arms of her oldest and youngest children, Macrina and Peter.
Blessing all of her children, she prays in particular for the
sanctification of these two who were, indeed, later canonized as
saints. Newman notes the strong influence of the women in the
family, and in one of his letters, St. Basil gives credit to his
mother and his grandmother, the elder Macrina, for his clear and
steadfast idea of God.
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