Feast of the Holy Family of Saint Basil the Great
Commemorated on the Second Sunday of January
On September 4th, 1998 the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece established the Feast of the Holy Family of Saint Basil the Great to promote and bless the sacred institution of the family. The celebration for this feast was established for the second Sunday of January. Few entire families have been officially celebrated by the Church through the centuries. Of the ancients, two families that quickly come to mind are those of Gregory the Theologian and Basil the Great. These families, beginning with the parents, created an atmosphere in the home that was spiritually healthy, for it was an atmosphere of love for God coupled with love for virtue, philanthropy and hospitality.
Here is some information about the lives of the lesser-known members of this illustrious family:
Macrina the Elder
She’s called “Confessor of the Faith”. Her family contains so many saints she’s known as the mother and grandmother of saints. She should be given another title – Bridge of Theology – for her invisible contributions to the understanding of our faith, and its expression in the world. Born about 270 AD, St. Macrina the Elder grew up a pagan. Most of the city she lived in was pagan, until St. Gregory Thaumaturgis arrived. St. Gregory studied under Origen, a a man who by turns was strikingly orthodox and breathtakingly heretical, and undoubtedly brilliant.
After Gregory’s studies, he became bishop in the city of Neoceasarea, in the region of Pontus, located south of the Black Sea in what are now the regions of Amayra and Tokat in Turkey. Macrina and her husband became acquainted with him, and she eventually became his spiritual daughter. St. Macrina so loved and revered him she kept his relics her entire life, finally settling them in a chapel at the family’s estates at Annesi, and cherished the wisdom he passed on to her. St. Macrina lived under some of the worst persecutions of the early Christian era.
St. Gregory the Theologian describes the last persecution under Maximian as “the most frightful and severe of all.” Spared the fate of the martyrs, St. Macrina nevertheless suffered for her beliefs. It’s believed by some that her husband was martyred. She and her household escaped to the forests surrounding their city, and hid for seven years. That she survived is due solely to God’s miraculous intervention. At his funeral oration for his close friend, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian described God’s provision for St. Macrina: “. . . their quarry lay before them, with food come of its own accord, a complete banquet prepared without effort, stags appearing all at once from some place in the hills.”
Once the persecution had died down, Macrina and her family returned to Neocaesarea. A short time later, the Roman authorities stripped them of everything they owned and turned them out into the streets. With nothing more than the clothes on her back to call her own, St. Macrina was forced to rely on the generosity and mercy of God in order to survive. Begging in the streets, telling stories for the few paltry coins it brought, and accepting the cast-off food and clothing of her former equals, she endured their pity, and the insults and mockery of the pagans in her town. She must have learned valuable lessons in humility. She raised her child, St. Basil (the Elder), as a single parent. In spite of the obstacles, she succeeded in passing on her faith and tradition to him. St. Macrina the Elder died in approximately 340 AD, when her eldest grandchild was only twelve. She never lived to see her grandchildren’s successes, or their spirited defense of our faith.
She made no new insights into our understanding of the faith. She left no letters, homilies or books. But by simply living what she believed, by simply being a mother and a grandmother, by teaching her children and grandchildren by word and example, by telling her children stories of her spiritual father and through her steadfast faith, St. Macrina the Elder became a bridge of theology, passing on the Tradition entrusted to her, and enabling two brilliant men to take the next steps in theology. (adapted from myocn.net)
St. Basil the Elder
Basil the Elder, the father of Basil the Great, grew up in Caesarea in Cappadocia, studied law and rhetoric, and then made a career for himself in Caesarea as a lawyer and professor of rhetoric. Gregory the Theologian portrays the father of his friend Basil the Great, in his funeral oration for the latter, as an upright Christian and a master of every virtue. Basil the Elder was married to Saint Emmelia, a woman of excellent and virtuous character and of outstanding beauty; she had lost her parents at an early age and married Basil the Elder so as to avoid the many dangers of the world. The reputation of this Christian married couple spread very quickly through all of Pontus and Cappadocia, especially because they showed great zeal in establishing works of corporal mercy for the poor and pilgrims.
From the marriage of this noble, saintly couple, Basil the Elder and Emmelia, came ten children, the most famous among them being Saint Basil the Great, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Saint Macrina the Younger, and Saint Peter of Sebaste. Basil the Elder died soon after the birth of his last-born child (who later became Bishop Peter of Sebaste), around 349. (adapted from Married Saints and Blesseds: Through the Centuries by Ferdinand Holbroeck S.T.D.)
St. Emmelia
Saint Emmelia (also Emily, Emilia, Emelia), was part of a holy family and most famous for being the mother of Saint Basil the Great. There are very few descriptions of Saint Emmelia’s life. She was the daughter of a martyr and the daughter-in-law of Saint Macrina the Elder (260-340). Along with her husband, Saint Basil the Elder (+ 349), she gave birth to nine or ten children. She instilled the Orthodox faith in her children, teaching them to pray and devote their lives to the service of the Church. Among these were Saint Basil the Great (+ 379), his sister Saint Macrina the Younger (c.330– 379) and his brothers Saints Gregory of Nyssa (334-394), Naukratios of Mount Nitria (332-358), and Peter of Sebaste (345/7-392). It is also a widely held tradition that Saint Theosevia (c. 335-c.385) was his youngest sister (though some claim she was the spouse of Saint Gregory of Nyssa), who is also a saint in the Church. There are also about four or five other girls, unknown sisters of Saint Basil. Therefore, Saint Emmelia is often called “the mother of saints.”
When her son, Naukratios, suddenly died at the age of twenty-seven, she was consoled by her eldest daughter, Macrina. Macrina reminded her that it was not befitting to a Christian to “mourn as those who have no hope” and inspired her to hope courageously in the resurrection bequeathed to us by the saving passion of the Lord. After her children left home, Emmelia was persuaded by Macrina to forsake the world. Together they founded a monastery for women. Emmelia divided the family property among her children. Retaining only some meager possessions, she and Macrina withdrew to a secluded family property in Pontus, picturesquely located on the banks of the Iris River and not far from Saint Basil’s wilderness home. A number of liberated female slaves desired tojoin the pair, and a convent was formed. They lived under one roof and held everything in common: they ate, worked, and prayed together. They were so eager to advance in virtue that they regarded fasting as food and poverty as riches. The harmony of this model community of women was unspoiled by anger, jealousy, hatred, or pride. Indeed, as the Church sings of monastics, they lived like angels in the flesh.
Living in this manner for many years, Emmelia reached old age. When an illness signaled her departure from this world, her son Peter came to her side. Together with Macrina, he tended to his mother in her last days. As the oldest and the youngest, Macrina and Peter held a special place in Emmelia’s heart. Before committing her soul to the Lord, she raised her voice to heaven, saying, “To you, O Lord, I give the first fruits and the tithe of the fruit of my womb. The first fruit is my first-born daughter, and the tithe is this, my youngest son. Let these be for you a rightly acceptable sacrifice, and let your holiness descend upon them!” Saint Emmelia reposed in 375 and was buried as she had requested, beside her husband in the chapel at their estate in Annesi, where Naukratios had also been laid. (adapted from johnsanidopoulos.com)
St. Naukratios
Saint Naukratios was born in 332 and was the son of Basil the Elder and Emmelia of Caesarea. He had distinguished himself both in scholarship and Christian devotion, as an active hermit, and a living example for his famous brothers, Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa. He was the second of four brothers and died young in a tragic fishing accident in 358. His brother, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, gives us his brief biography in his Life of Macrina: "The second of the four brothers, Naukratios by name, who came next after the great Basil, excelled the rest in natural endowments and physical beauty, in strength, speed and ability to turn his hand to anything. When he had reached his twenty-first year, and had given such demonstration of his studies by speaking in public, that the whole audience in the theatre was thrilled, he was led by a divine providence to despise all that was already in his grasp, and drawn by an irresistible impulse went off to a life of solitude and poverty. He took nothing with him but himself, save that one of the servants named Chrysapius followed him, because of the affection he had towards his master and the intention he had formed to lead the same life. So he lived by himself, having found a solitary spot on the banks of the Iris - a river flowing through the midst of Pontus. It rises actually in Armenia, passes through our parts, and discharges its stream into the Black Sea. By it the young man found a place with a luxuriant growth of trees and a hill nestling under the mass of the overhanging mountain. There he lived far removed from the noises of the city and the distractions that surround the lives both of the soldier and the pleader in the law courts.
Having thus freed himself from the din of cares that impedes man's higher life, with his own hands he looked after some old people who were living in poverty and feebleness, considering it appropriate to his mode of life to make such a work his care. So the generous youth would go on fishing expeditions, and since he was expert in every form of sport, he provided food to his grateful clients by this means. And at the same time by such exercises he was taming his own manhood. Besides this, he also gladly obeyed his mother's wishes whenever she issued a command. And so in these two ways he guided his life, subduing his youthful nature by toils and caring assiduously for his mother, and thus keeping the divine commands he was traveling home to God. In this manner he completed the fifth year of his life as a philosopher, by which he made his mother happy, both by the way in which he adorned his own life by continence, and by the devotion of all his powers to do the will of her that bore him.
Then there fell on the mother a grievous and tragic affliction, contrived, I think, by the Adversary, which brought trouble and mourning upon all the family. For he was snatched suddenly away from life. No previous sickness had prepared them for the blow, nor did any of the usual and well known mischances bring death upon the young man. Having started out on one of the expeditions, by which he provided necessaries for the old men under his care, he was brought back home dead, together with Chrysapius who shared his life. His mother was far away, three days distant from the scene of the tragedy. Someone came to her telling the bad news. Perfect though she was in every department of virtue, yet nature dominated her as it does others. For she collapsed, and in a moment lost both breath and speech, since her reason failed her under the disaster, and she was thrown to the ground by the assault of the evil tidings, like some noble athlete hit by an unexpected blow. And now the virtue of the great Macrina was displayed. Facing the disaster in a rational spirit, she both preserved herself from collapse, and becoming the prop of her mother's weakness, raised her up from the abyss of grief, and by her own steadfastness and imperturbability taught her mother's soul to be brave.” (adapted from johnsanidopoulos.com)
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Feast of the Holy Family of Saint Basil the Great
Commemorated on the Second Sunday of January
On September 4th, 1998 the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece established the Feast of the Holy Family of Saint Basil the Great to promote and bless the sacred institution of the family. The celebration for this feast was established for the second Sunday of January. Few entire families have been officially celebrated by the Church through the centuries. Of the ancients, two families that quickly come to mind are those of Gregory the Theologian and Basil the Great. These families, beginning with the parents, created an atmosphere in the home that was spiritually healthy, for it was an atmosphere of love for God coupled with love for virtue, philanthropy and hospitality.
Here is some information about the lives of the lesser-known members of this illustrious family:
Macrina the Elder
She’s called “Confessor of the Faith”. Her family contains so many saints she’s known as the mother and grandmother of saints. She should be given another title – Bridge of Theology – for her invisible contributions to the understanding of our faith, and its expression in the world. Born about 270 AD, St. Macrina the Elder grew up a pagan. Most of the city she lived in was pagan, until St. Gregory Thaumaturgis arrived. St. Gregory studied under Origen, a a man who by turns was strikingly orthodox and breathtakingly heretical, and undoubtedly brilliant.
After Gregory’s studies, he became bishop in the city of Neoceasarea, in the region of Pontus, located south of the Black Sea in what are now the regions of Amayra and Tokat in Turkey. Macrina and her husband became acquainted with him, and she eventually became his spiritual daughter. St. Macrina so loved and revered him she kept his relics her entire life, finally settling them in a chapel at the family’s estates at Annesi, and cherished the wisdom he passed on to her. St. Macrina lived under some of the worst persecutions of the early Christian era.
St. Gregory the Theologian describes the last persecution under Maximian as “the most frightful and severe of all.” Spared the fate of the martyrs, St. Macrina nevertheless suffered for her beliefs. It’s believed by some that her husband was martyred. She and her household escaped to the forests surrounding their city, and hid for seven years. That she survived is due solely to God’s miraculous intervention. At his funeral oration for his close friend, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian described God’s provision for St. Macrina: “. . . their quarry lay before them, with food come of its own accord, a complete banquet prepared without effort, stags appearing all at once from some place in the hills.”
Once the persecution had died down, Macrina and her family returned to Neocaesarea. A short time later, the Roman authorities stripped them of everything they owned and turned them out into the streets. With nothing more than the clothes on her back to call her own, St. Macrina was forced to rely on the generosity and mercy of God in order to survive. Begging in the streets, telling stories for the few paltry coins it brought, and accepting the cast-off food and clothing of her former equals, she endured their pity, and the insults and mockery of the pagans in her town. She must have learned valuable lessons in humility. She raised her child, St. Basil (the Elder), as a single parent. In spite of the obstacles, she succeeded in passing on her faith and tradition to him. St. Macrina the Elder died in approximately 340 AD, when her eldest grandchild was only twelve. She never lived to see her grandchildren’s successes, or their spirited defense of our faith.
She made no new insights into our understanding of the faith. She left no letters, homilies or books. But by simply living what she believed, by simply being a mother and a grandmother, by teaching her children and grandchildren by word and example, by telling her children stories of her spiritual father and through her steadfast faith, St. Macrina the Elder became a bridge of theology, passing on the Tradition entrusted to her, and enabling two brilliant men to take the next steps in theology. (adapted from myocn.net)
St. Basil the Elder
Basil the Elder, the father of Basil the Great, grew up in Caesarea in Cappadocia, studied law and rhetoric, and then made a career for himself in Caesarea as a lawyer and professor of rhetoric. Gregory the Theologian portrays the father of his friend Basil the Great, in his funeral oration for the latter, as an upright Christian and a master of every virtue. Basil the Elder was married to Saint Emmelia, a woman of excellent and virtuous character and of outstanding beauty; she had lost her parents at an early age and married Basil the Elder so as to avoid the many dangers of the world. The reputation of this Christian married couple spread very quickly through all of Pontus and Cappadocia, especially because they showed great zeal in establishing works of corporal mercy for the poor and pilgrims.
From the marriage of this noble, saintly couple, Basil the Elder and Emmelia, came ten children, the most famous among them being Saint Basil the Great, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Saint Macrina the Younger, and Saint Peter of Sebaste. Basil the Elder died soon after the birth of his last-born child (who later became Bishop Peter of Sebaste), around 349. (adapted from Married Saints and Blesseds: Through the Centuries by Ferdinand Holbroeck S.T.D.)
St. Emmelia
Saint Emmelia (also Emily, Emilia, Emelia), was part of a holy family and most famous for being the mother of Saint Basil the Great. There are very few descriptions of Saint Emmelia’s life. She was the daughter of a martyr and the daughter-in-law of Saint Macrina the Elder (260-340). Along with her husband, Saint Basil the Elder (+ 349), she gave birth to nine or ten children. She instilled the Orthodox faith in her children, teaching them to pray and devote their lives to the service of the Church. Among these were Saint Basil the Great (+ 379), his sister Saint Macrina the Younger (c.330– 379) and his brothers Saints Gregory of Nyssa (334-394), Naukratios of Mount Nitria (332-358), and Peter of Sebaste (345/7-392). It is also a widely held tradition that Saint Theosevia (c. 335-c.385) was his youngest sister (though some claim she was the spouse of Saint Gregory of Nyssa), who is also a saint in the Church. There are also about four or five other girls, unknown sisters of Saint Basil. Therefore, Saint Emmelia is often called “the mother of saints.”
When her son, Naukratios, suddenly died at the age of twenty-seven, she was consoled by her eldest daughter, Macrina. Macrina reminded her that it was not befitting to a Christian to “mourn as those who have no hope” and inspired her to hope courageously in the resurrection bequeathed to us by the saving passion of the Lord. After her children left home, Emmelia was persuaded by Macrina to forsake the world. Together they founded a monastery for women. Emmelia divided the family property among her children. Retaining only some meager possessions, she and Macrina withdrew to a secluded family property in Pontus, picturesquely located on the banks of the Iris River and not far from Saint Basil’s wilderness home. A number of liberated female slaves desired tojoin the pair, and a convent was formed. They lived under one roof and held everything in common: they ate, worked, and prayed together. They were so eager to advance in virtue that they regarded fasting as food and poverty as riches. The harmony of this model community of women was unspoiled by anger, jealousy, hatred, or pride. Indeed, as the Church sings of monastics, they lived like angels in the flesh.
Living in this manner for many years, Emmelia reached old age. When an illness signaled her departure from this world, her son Peter came to her side. Together with Macrina, he tended to his mother in her last days. As the oldest and the youngest, Macrina and Peter held a special place in Emmelia’s heart. Before committing her soul to the Lord, she raised her voice to heaven, saying, “To you, O Lord, I give the first fruits and the tithe of the fruit of my womb. The first fruit is my first-born daughter, and the tithe is this, my youngest son. Let these be for you a rightly acceptable sacrifice, and let your holiness descend upon them!” Saint Emmelia reposed in 375 and was buried as she had requested, beside her husband in the chapel at their estate in Annesi, where Naukratios had also been laid. (adapted from johnsanidopoulos.com)
St. Naukratios
Saint Naukratios was born in 332 and was the son of Basil the Elder and Emmelia of Caesarea. He had distinguished himself both in scholarship and Christian devotion, as an active hermit, and a living example for his famous brothers, Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa. He was the second of four brothers and died young in a tragic fishing accident in 358. His brother, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, gives us his brief biography in his Life of Macrina: "The second of the four brothers, Naukratios by name, who came next after the great Basil, excelled the rest in natural endowments and physical beauty, in strength, speed and ability to turn his hand to anything. When he had reached his twenty-first year, and had given such demonstration of his studies by speaking in public, that the whole audience in the theatre was thrilled, he was led by a divine providence to despise all that was already in his grasp, and drawn by an irresistible impulse went off to a life of solitude and poverty. He took nothing with him but himself, save that one of the servants named Chrysapius followed him, because of the affection he had towards his master and the intention he had formed to lead the same life. So he lived by himself, having found a solitary spot on the banks of the Iris - a river flowing through the midst of Pontus. It rises actually in Armenia, passes through our parts, and discharges its stream into the Black Sea. By it the young man found a place with a luxuriant growth of trees and a hill nestling under the mass of the overhanging mountain. There he lived far removed from the noises of the city and the distractions that surround the lives both of the soldier and the pleader in the law courts.
Having thus freed himself from the din of cares that impedes man's higher life, with his own hands he looked after some old people who were living in poverty and feebleness, considering it appropriate to his mode of life to make such a work his care. So the generous youth would go on fishing expeditions, and since he was expert in every form of sport, he provided food to his grateful clients by this means. And at the same time by such exercises he was taming his own manhood. Besides this, he also gladly obeyed his mother's wishes whenever she issued a command. And so in these two ways he guided his life, subduing his youthful nature by toils and caring assiduously for his mother, and thus keeping the divine commands he was traveling home to God. In this manner he completed the fifth year of his life as a philosopher, by which he made his mother happy, both by the way in which he adorned his own life by continence, and by the devotion of all his powers to do the will of her that bore him.
Then there fell on the mother a grievous and tragic affliction, contrived, I think, by the Adversary, which brought trouble and mourning upon all the family. For he was snatched suddenly away from life. No previous sickness had prepared them for the blow, nor did any of the usual and well known mischances bring death upon the young man. Having started out on one of the expeditions, by which he provided necessaries for the old men under his care, he was brought back home dead, together with Chrysapius who shared his life. His mother was far away, three days distant from the scene of the tragedy. Someone came to her telling the bad news. Perfect though she was in every department of virtue, yet nature dominated her as it does others. For she collapsed, and in a moment lost both breath and speech, since her reason failed her under the disaster, and she was thrown to the ground by the assault of the evil tidings, like some noble athlete hit by an unexpected blow. And now the virtue of the great Macrina was displayed. Facing the disaster in a rational spirit, she both preserved herself from collapse, and becoming the prop of her mother's weakness, raised her up from the abyss of grief, and by her own steadfastness and imperturbability taught her mother's soul to be brave.” (adapted from johnsanidopoulos.com)
St. Peter of Sebaste
St. Peter of Sebaste was the youngest of ten children, and lost his father in his cradle, some think before he was born; and his eldest sister, Macrina, took care of his education, in which it was her only aim to instruct him in the maxims of religion, and form him to perfect piety; profane studies she thought of little use to one, who designed to make salvation the sole end of all his inquiries and pursuits, nor did he ever make them any part of his employment, confining his views to a monastic state. His mother had founded two monasteries, one for men, the other for women; the former she put under the direction of her son Basil, the latter under that of her daughter Macrina.
Peter, whose thoughts were wholly bent on cultivating the seeds of piety that had been sown in him, retired into the house governed by his brother, situated on the bank of the river Iris; when St. Basil was obliged to quit that post, in 362, he left the abbacy in the hands of St. Peter, who discharged this office for several years with great prudence and virtue. When the provinces of Pontus and Cappadocia were visited by a severe famine, he gave a remarkable proof of his charity; human prudence would have advised him to be frugal in the relief of others, till his own family should be secured against that calamity; but Peter had studied the principles of Christian charity in another school, and liberally disposed of all that belonged to his monastery, and whatever he could raise, to supply with necessaries the numerous crowds that daily resorted to him, in that time of distress.
Soon after Saint Basil was made bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, in 370, he promoted his brother Peter to the priesthood; the holy abbot looked on the holy orders he had received as a fresh engagement to perfection. His brother St. Basil, died on the 1st of January, in 379, and his sister Macrina in November, the same year. Eustathius, bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia, a violent Arian, and a furious persecutor of St. Basil, seems to have died soon after them; for St. Peter was consecrated bishop of Sebaste, in 380, to root out the Arian heresy in that diocese, where it had taken deep root; the zeal of a saint was necessary, nor can we doubt that God placed our saint in that dignity for this purpose. A letter which St. Peter wrote, and which is prefixed to St. Gregory of Nyssa’s books against Eunomius, has entitled him to a rank among the ecclesiastical writers, and is a standing proof, that though he had confined himself to sacred studies, yet by good conversation and reading, and by the dint of genius, and an excellent understanding, he was inferior to none but his incomparable brother Basil, and his colleague Gregory the Theologian, in solid eloquence. In 381, he attended the general council held at Constantinople, and joined the other bishops in condemning the Macedonian heretics. Not only his brother St. Gregory; but also Theodoret, and all antiquity, bear testimony to his extraordinary sanctity, prudence, and zeal. His death happened in summer, about the year 387, and his brother of Nyssa mentions, that his memory was honored at Sebaste (probably the very year after his death) by an anniversary solemnity, with several martyrs of that city. (adapted from Butler’s Lives of the Saints)
St. Theosebia
There is strong evidence that Saint Theosebia the Deaconess was the wife of Saint Gregory of Nyssa, but this is not generally accepted for lack of complete evidence. An ambiguous expression in the Letter of Condolence written by Gregory the Theologian to Gregory of Nyssa upon the death of Theosebia the Deaconess, expressly calls her his "sister" and "consort". The latter word "consort" in Greek is syzigon, which also means "spouse".
This and other language certainly indicates a close relationship which scholars generally agree either mean she was Gregory of Nyssa's wife or sister. It should be mentioned also that in his treatise On Virginity (ch.3), Gregory of Nyssa does indicate that he may have been married, though this also is a bit ambiguous. Saint Theosebia was a virgin and served the Holy Church as a deaconess, caring for the sick, distributing food to vagrants, raising orphans and preparing women for holy Baptism. When Saint Gregory of Nyssa was in exile for three years, Saint Theosebia was with him and she shared in all the tribulations of a life of wandering. Saint Theosebia died in 385, and Saint Gregory the Theologian praised her in a eulogy.
Peter of Sebaste
St. Peter of Sebaste was the youngest of ten children, and lost his father in his cradle, some think before he was born; and his eldest sister, Macrina, took care of his education, in which it was her only aim to instruct him in the maxims of religion, and form him to perfect piety; profane studies she thought of little use to one, who designed to make salvation the sole end of all his inquiries and pursuits, nor did he ever make them any part of his employment, confining his views to a monastic state. His mother had founded two monasteries, one for men, the other for women; the former she put under the direction of her son Basil, the latter under that of her daughter Macrina.
Peter, whose thoughts were wholly bent on cultivating the seeds of piety that had been sown in him, retired into the house governed by his brother, situated on the bank of the river Iris; when St. Basil was obliged to quit that post, in 362, he left the abbacy in the hands of St. Peter, who discharged this office for several years with great prudence and virtue. When the provinces of Pontus and Cappadocia were visited by a severe famine, he gave a remarkable proof of his charity; human prudence would have advised him to be frugal in the relief of others, till his own family should be secured against that calamity; but Peter had studied the principles of Christian charity in another school, and liberally disposed of all that belonged to his monastery, and whatever he could raise, to supply with necessaries the numerous crowds that daily resorted to him, in that time of distress.
Soon after Saint Basil was made bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, in 370, he promoted his brother Peter to the priesthood; the holy abbot looked on the holy orders he had received as a fresh engagement to perfection. His brother St. Basil, died on the 1st of January, in 379, and his sister Macrina in November, the same year. Eustathius, bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia, a violent Arian, and a furious persecutor of St. Basil, seems to have died soon after them; for St. Peter was consecrated bishop of Sebaste, in 380, to root out the Arian heresy in that diocese, where it had taken deep root; the zeal of a saint was necessary, nor can we doubt that God placed our saint in that dignity for this purpose. A letter which St. Peter wrote, and which is prefixed to St. Gregory of Nyssa’s books against Eunomius, has entitled him to a rank among the ecclesiastical writers, and is a standing proof, that though he had confined himself to sacred studies, yet by good conversation and reading, and by the dint of genius, and an excellent understanding, he was inferior to none but his incomparable brother Basil, and his colleague Gregory the Theologian, in solid eloquence. In 381, he attended the general council held at Constantinople, and joined the other bishops in condemning the Macedonian heretics. Not only his brother St. Gregory; but also Theodoret, and all antiquity, bear testimony to his extraordinary sanctity, prudence, and zeal. His death happened in summer, about the year 387, and his brother of Nyssa mentions, that his memory was honored at Sebaste (probably the very year after his death) by an anniversary solemnity, with several martyrs of that city. (adapted from Butler’s Lives of the Saints)
St. Theosebia
There is strong evidence that Saint Theosebia the Deaconess was the wife of Saint Gregory of Nyssa, but this is not generally accepted for lack of complete evidence. An ambiguous expression in the Letter of Condolence written by Gregory the Theologian to Gregory of Nyssa upon the death of Theosebia the Deaconess, expressly calls her his "sister" and "consort". The latter word "consort" in Greek is syzigon, which also means "spouse".
This and other language certainly indicates a close relationship which scholars generally agree either mean she was Gregory of Nyssa's wife or sister. It should be mentioned also that in his treatise On Virginity (ch.3), Gregory of Nyssa does indicate that he may have been married, though this also is a bit ambiguous. Saint Theosebia was a virgin and served the Holy Church as a deaconess, caring for the sick, distributing food to vagrants, raising orphans and preparing women for holy Baptism. When Saint Gregory of Nyssa was in exile for three years, Saint Theosebia was with him and she shared in all the tribulations of a life of wandering. Saint Theosebia died in 385, and Saint Gregory the Theologian praised her in a eulogy.
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