Today, July 19, is the memorial of Saint Macrina the Younger.
Macrina was born in the year 330 in what is now Turkey. She came from a family of saints. She was the daughter of Saint Emmelia and Saint Basil the Elder; sister of Saint Basil the Great, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, and Saint Peter of Sebastea; granddaughter of Saint Macrina the Elder, and called the Younger to distinguish between the two.
Educated by her mother, Macrina could read from an early age. She was betrothed at age 12 to a young lawyer who died before the wedding. She refused other offers of marriage, and devoted herself to her family, then to a religious life.
As a nun, she succeeded her mother as head of a small community of women in Pontus (in modern Turkey). Her brother Saint Gregory wrote her life story and compiled her reminiscences.
She died of natural causes in 379.