Commontide
Proper 11
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
The 5th Sunday after Trinity
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Monastic and Teacher of the Faith
Ecumenical Commemoration
Macrina the Younger was the eldest of a great Cappadocian family and, by her brother Gregory's account, the teacher of them all. Elder sister of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, she turned the family estate into a community of prayer where mistress and servant lived as equals, and on her deathbed she discoursed on the soul and the resurrection with such wisdom that Gregory wrote her down as a Christian Socrates.
Macrina was born around 327 in Cappadocia into an extraordinary family. Her grandmother Macrina the Elder was a disciple of Gregory Thaumaturgus; her parents Basil the Elder and Emmelia were both devout Christians; her siblings included Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa.
Betrothed as a young woman, Macrina's fiancé died before the marriage. She refused all subsequent proposals and declared that she was still betrothed — to Christ, through her fiancé's participation in the resurrection. This remarkable theological argument — that Christian engagement was binding beyond death in hope of the resurrection — was characteristic of her mind.
When her father died, Macrina persuaded her mother Emmelia to convert the family estate at Annisa into a monastic community. They freed their slaves (who joined as equals), renounced their wealth, and established a life of prayer, manual labor, and care for the poor. Macrina's influence on her brothers was decisive — Gregory credits her with converting Basil from academic ambition to the monastic vocation that made him one of the great Fathers.
Gregory's dialogue On the Soul and the Resurrection records a conversation with Macrina on her deathbed. She argues — with philosophical rigor and scriptural depth — for the resurrection of the body, the purification of the soul after death, and the ultimate restoration of all things. Gregory presents her as his teacher, not merely his sister.
Macrina died on July 19, 379. Gregory arrived just before her death and found her lying on two boards, covered with rough cloth, her only possessions a cross of iron and a ring.
Traditionally, Gregory records that when Macrina's body was prepared for burial, a scar was discovered on her breast — the mark of a tumor healed by prayer alone. She had refused to see a physician, considering it 'worse than the disease to uncover her body to a stranger's eyes.' Gregory presents this as evidence of her faith and ascetic commitment.