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Relevant
books available at Amazon
Many Gregory of Nyssa
studies
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STUDIES
 
Presence and Thought
Hans Urs von Balthasar --------
 
Re-thinking Gregory of Nyssa
Sarah Coakley --------
 
Gregory of Nyssa, Ancient and (Post)modern
Morwenna Ludlow -------- TRANSLATIONS
 
Gregory of Nyssa
Anthony Meredith --------
 
Ascetical Works
Virginia Woods Callahan -------- |
Macrina has a profound influence on her brother
Basil and her mother Emmelia.
When the mother had arranged excellent marriages for the other sisters, such as
was best in each case, Macrina's brother, the great Basil, returned after his
long period of education, already a practised rhetorician. He was puffed up
beyond measure with the pride of oratory and looked down on the local
dignitaries, excelling in his own estimation all the men of leading and
position. Nevertheless Macrina took him in hand, and with such speed did she
draw him also toward the mark of philosophy that he forsook the glories of this
world and despised fame gained by speaking, and deserted it for this busy life
where one toils with one's hands. His renunciation of property was complete,
lest anything should impede the life of virtue. But, indeed, his life and the
subsequent acts, by which he became renowned throughout the world and put into
the shade all those who have won renown for their virtue, would need a long
description and much time. But I must divert my tale to its appointed task. Now
that all the distractions of the material life had been removed, Macrina
persuaded her mother to give up her ordinary life and all showy style of living
and the services of domestics to which she had been accustomed before, and bring
her point of view down to that of the masses, and to share the life of the
maids, treating all her slave girls and menials as if they were sisters and
belonged to the same rank as herself.
Following the death of Macrina's fiancé Naucratius, Macrina and Emmelia make
progress in the ascetic life.
When the cares of bringing up a family and the anxieties of their education and
settling in life had come to an end, and the property----a frequent cause of
worldliness---- had been for the most part divided among the children, then, as
I said above, the life of the virgin became her mother's guide and led her on to
this philosophic and spiritual manner of life. And weaning her from all
accustomed luxuries, Macrina drew her on to adopt her own standard of humility.
She induced her to live on a footing of equality with the staff of maids, so as
to share with them in the same food, the same kind of bed, and in all the
necessaries of life, without any regard to differences of rank. Such was the
manner of their life, so great the height of their philosophy, and so holy their
conduct day and night, as to make verbal description inadequate. For just as
souls freed from the body by death are saved from the cares of this life, so was
their life far removed from all earthly follies and ordered with a view of
imitating the angelic life. For no anger or jealousy, no hatred or pride, was
observed in their midst, nor anything else of this nature, since they had cast
away all vain desires for honour and glory, all vanity, arrogance and the like.
Continence was their luxury, and obscurity their glory. Poverty, and the casting
away of all material superfluities like dust from their bodies, was their
wealth. In fact, of all the things after which men eagerly pursue in this life,
there were none with which they could not easily dispense.1 Nothing was left but
the care of divine things and the unceasing round of prayer and endless hymnody,
co-extensive with time itself, practised by night and day. So that to them this
meant work, and work so called was rest. What human words could make you realise
such a life as this, a life on the borderline between human and spiritual
nature? For that nature should be free from human weaknesses is more than can be
expected from mankind. But these women fell short of the angelic and immaterial
nature only in so far as they appeared in bodily form, and were contained within
a human frame, and were dependent upon the organs of sense. Perhaps some might
even dare to say that the difference was not to their disadvantage. Since living
in the body and yet after the likeness of the immaterial beings, they were not
bowed down by the weight of the body, but their life was exalted to the skies
and they walked on high in company with the powers of heaven. The period covered
by this mode of life was no short one, and with the lapse of time their
successes increased, as their philosophy continually grew purer with the
discovery of new blessings.
Macrina's influence on her youngest brother Peter.
Macrina was helped most of all in achieving this great aim of her life by her
own brother Peter. With him the mother's pangs ceased, for he was the latest
born of the family. At one and the same time he received the names of son and
orphan, for as he entered this life his father passed away from it. But the
eldest of the family, the subject of our story, took him soon after birth from
the nurse's breast and reared him herself and educated him on a lofty system of
training, practising him from infancy in holy studies, so as not to give his
soul leisure to turn to vain things. Thus having become all things to the
lad---- father, teacher, tutor, mother, giver of all good advice----she produced
such results that before the age of boyhood had passed, when he was yet a
stripling in the first bloom of tender youth, he aspired to the high mark of
philosophy. And, thanks to his natural endowments, he was clever in every art
that involves hand-work, so that without any guidance he achieved a completely
accurate knowledge of everything that ordinary people learn by time and trouble.
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. Once when a severe famine had occurred and crowds
from all quarters were frequenting the retreat where they lived, drawn by the
fame of their benevolence, Peter's kindness supplied such an abundance of food
that the desert seemed a city by reason of the number of visitors.
Visiting his sister near the end of her life Gregory finds her weak and close
to death, yet still speaking in moving terms about her Christian faith and hope.
Lest she should vex my soul she stilled her groans and made great efforts to
hide, if possible, the difficulty of her breathing. And in every way she tried
to be cheerful, both taking the lead herself in friendly talk, and giving us an
opportunity by asking questions. When in the course of conversation mention was
made of the great Basil, my soul was saddened and my face fell dejectedly. But
so far was she from sharing in my affliction that, treating the mention of the
saint as an occasion for yet loftier philosophy, she discussed various subjects,
inquiring into human affairs and revealing in her conversation the divine
purpose concealed in disasters. Besides this, she discussed the future life,2 as
if inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that it almost seemed as if my soul were
lifted by the help of her words away from mortal nature and placed within the
heavenly sanctuary. And just as we learn in the story of Job that the saint was
tormented in every part of his body with discharges owing to the corruption of
his wounds, yet did not allow the pain to affect his reasoning power, but in
spite of the pains in the body did not relax his activities nor interrupt the
lofty sentiments of his discourse----similarly did I see in the case of this
great woman. Fever was drying up her strength and driving her on to death, yet
she refreshed her body as it were with dew, and thus kept her mind unimpeded in
the contemplation of heavenly things, in no way injured by her terrible
weakness. And if my narrative were not extending to an unconscionable length I
would tell everything in order, how she was uplifted as she discoursed to us on
the nature of the soul and explained the reason of life in the flesh, and why
man was made, and how he was mortal, and the origin of death and the nature of
the journey from death to life again. In all of which she told her tale clearly
and consecutively as if inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the even
flow of her language was like a fountain whose water streams down
uninterruptedly.
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