Makrina the Elder

Venerable Macrina, grandmother of Basil the Great.

St. Makrina belonged to the extraordinary Cappadocian family of saints that gave the Church St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa. A woman of deep piety and steadfast faith, she devoted herself to prayer and the ascetic life, and through her teaching and example the Orthodox faith was handed down within a household that produced some of the greatest fathers of the Church.

She is honored as a model of holiness lived out in family life, showing how the faith is passed from generation to generation. She is commemorated on July 19.

Feast day

On the New Calendar, Makrina the Elder is commemorated on July 19. Churches on the Old (Julian) Calendar keep the feast on August 1 of the civil calendar.

Who celebrates a name day

People with these names keep their name day on this feast:

Makrina, Makrine

Also commemorated on July 19

• Dios of Antioch

  Venerable, Δίος

  Venerable Dios the Wonderworker, abbot in Constantinople.

• Theodore of Edessa

  Hierarch, Θεόδωρος Εδέσσης

  St. Theodore the Sabbaite, Bishop of Edessa.

• Finding of the Relics of Seraphim of Sarov

  Saint, Σεραφείμ του Σάρωφ

  Uncovering of the relics of Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, wonderworker.

• Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council

  Saint, Πατέρες Δ' Οικουμενικής Συνόδου

  Commemoration of the Holy Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon.

• Diokles the Venerable

  Venerable, Διοκλής

  Venerable Diokles, an ascetic who reposed in peace.

Icon: public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.