Commemorated on May 30
Saint Basil the Elder raised in Neocaesarea in Pontus. The son of Macrina the Elder, Basil is said to have moved with the family to the shores of the Black Sea during the persecution of Christians under Galerius. He married into the wealthy family of his wife Emily of Caesarea, and settled in Caesarea. There, he and his wife, with the help of his mother, raised a family that would greatly influence Christian history. Of their nine children, five of them are remembered by name and are considered to be saints: Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Peter of Sebaste, Naucratius, and Saint Macrina the Younger.
