St. Macrina the Elder: Patron of Widows
The saint of the day for January 14th is St. Macrina the Elder, a learned woman gifted with wisdom and counsel. Our knowledge of her life is limited and comes mainly from the testimony of the great Cappadocian fathers of the Church as well as from her grandchildren and the panegyric of St. Gregory of Nazianzus and St. Basil. We do know that Macrina was widowed and is the patron of widows and an intercessor for poor people. This lady was the grandmother of saints, the most notable being the brothers Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa. It was Macrina and her husband who founded the faith of the family and passed it on as a splendid treasure to her children and grandchildren. That faith was born of suffering and persecution. St. Macrina the elder was a native of Cappadocia, in what is now eastern Turkey. It was here that the great apostle of Cappadocia, St. Gregory the Wonderworker, established the faith around the year 250. When he arrived in the territory, it was said, th...