_THE SISTER OF S. BASIL_
It is most rare to be able to obtain a glimpse into the home-life of the
ancients. In the first centuries of our era, in the Greek and Roman
world, life was so much in public, that there was hardly any domestic
life at all; and it was only with Christianity that the quiet, retired
and sweet home society constituted itself.
In the midst of flaunting paganism, the first believers were driven
indoors, so to speak; they were precluded from much of the amusement
that went to fill up the time of the heathen. They could not sit on the
benches of the amphitheatre, nor attend at the representations of the
theatre. They were largely prevented from being present at banquets
given by friends, as these began and ended with libations to the gods,
and the benediction of the deities called down on the meats. They were
precluded from taking part in civil life, by the oaths and sacrifices
associated with every official act.
Thinking, feeling, believing differently from their fellow-citizens,
they could not associate with them easily abroad, and were consequently
driven to find their society in their own homes.
Perhaps it is only in the writings of S. Basil and his brother S.
Gregory of Nyssa that we get anything like a look into the interior of a
Christian household in the fourth century. It is therefore, although a
quiet picture of an uneventful and unexciting existence, full of
interest and charm. S. Basil belonged to a family both noble and
wealthy, in Cappadocia, in Asia Minor. His ancestors had occupied public
positions either as magistrates or at the imperial court.
His grandmother, Macrina, a native of Neocæsarea, in Pontus, had been
brought up by S. Gregory the wonder-worker; and she and her husband,
whose name is not recorded, were confessors in the persecution of
Diocletian. They fled to the wooded mountain sides, leaving their houses
and possessions; and in their places of retreat subsisted mainly on the
wild deer, that were so tame that they allowed themselves to be easily
snared. They remained in concealment for seven years, and it was not
till an edict in favour of the Christians was promulgated, on April
30th, 311, that they ventured to return to Neocæsarea.
Macrina died in Pontus about 340. Her son Basil inherited the piety of
his parents, and he took to wife Æmilia, a woman of great virtue, the
daughter of a man who had been put to death after having been deprived
of his goods by the Emperor Licinius. She had lost her mother in early
youth.
Basil and Æmilia were very wealthy. They owned extensive estates in
Pontus, Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia; they had a large family, ten
children, of whom the eldest was Macrina, named after her grandmother;
S. Basil was the eldest son, then came Naucratius, Gregory, afterwards
of Nyssa, and Peter, the youngest, afterwards of Sebaste. We know no
more of the four younger girls than that they were well provided for in
marriage, and one of them had daughters who became superiors of a
monastery in Cæsarea under the direction of their uncle, S. Basil.
Basil the elder, the father, died about 349, shortly after the birth of
Peter. Æmilia was now left a widow with a large family to look after,
but she was assisted in everything by her eldest daughter, Macrina, who
was her inseparable companion.
When Macrina had been born she had been confided to a nurse, but it was
remarked that she was almost always in her mother’s arms. Æmilia took
pains to form the mind of the little girl, and give it a religious
direction. She taught her first of all sentences from the Book of
Wisdom, then made her commit sundry psalms to memory; so that, as her
brother Gregory wrote, the Psalter became to her a companion day and
night, and she was for ever singing psalms or reciting them in her
heart.
Macrina was a good and patient needlewoman. Not only was the house
large, but the brothers and sisters needed attention, and their clothes
keeping in order, and Æmilia and her eldest daughter were constantly
engaged at their needles, to keep pace with the demands of the family;
and as they were always together, one mind was but the reflexion of the
other.
What tended to make Macrina a still, stay-at-home girl, was an early
love affair. She had been engaged by her father’s consent to a
high-principled, well-born young man, and the marriage was only deferred
because of Macrina’s youth. But before this took place he fell ill of
fever and was carried off rapidly. After this Basil thought of uniting
his daughter to some other suitable person, but Macrina urgently
entreated to be allowed to remain with her mother. “My dear husband,”
she said, “is not dead,—he lives with God. He has gone on a far
journey—that is all, and I shall remain faithful to him whilst he is
away.”
Her father did not press her—indeed, the devotion of Macrina to her
mother was so tender and so close that he thought neither could bear to
be parted. When he also died, then the union of hearts and interests
became closer.
As the children grew up they dispersed, and received their several
inheritances; but they all carried away with them indelibly the stamp
impressed on their hearts by their mother and eldest sister; and in the
end three of them became bishops and saints. Peter, the youngest, had
been most in their hands, but the favourite brother was Naucratius.
As soon as all the birds were out of the nest, then Æmilia felt that
there was nothing to retain her in the city, and she pined to be away
from its dusty streets and noisy market in the green, sweet country, and
in quiet with God.
Accordingly she and Macrina retired to a villa they possessed on the
banks of the river Iris, at some little distance from the town of Ibora.
This they converted into a sort of monastery. The slaves and other
servants, if they chose to unite in the same life, were given freedom
and accepted on the footing of sisters, no distinction being made
between the members of the little community.
S. Gregory of Nyssa says of this society: “They were all as one in what
they ate and drank, as to their furniture and cells, and there was no
token that they belonged originally to different ranks in the world.
There was no ruffle of temper among them, no petty jealousies, no
suspicions, no spite .... all their occupation was in prayer and the
singing of psalms, which went on night and day.”
Peter, the youngest, who had been ordained, lived near at hand, and for
the care he had received as a child returned his ministerial offices. S.
Basil also for awhile lived in retirement not far off, and was a help
and comfort to them.
Macrina suffered about this time from a painful abscess in her breast,
and Æmilia constantly urged her to let a doctor examine and lance it.
She was afraid lest, should it not be opened, it might break internally.
But Macrina was so modest and sensitive—perhaps absurdly so—that she
shrank from the ordeal of letting a man treat the place. At last the old
lady insisted; the abscess had become so hot and swollen that she was
alarmed.
Macrina, struggling against shame, went into the little oratory, and
remained weeping and praying there all night, sometimes with her face
against the ground and her tears running over the dust. The heat and
pain in her breast and the tension were so insupportable, that she
gathered up some of the cool earth and pressed it to the swelling, when
it burst, and she was relieved; and so the need for calling in a surgeon
was overpassed.
At length Æmilia died, at an advanced age. None of her children were
with her at the time except Macrina and Peter; however, as she was
dying, the old and saintly woman murmured blessings on the absent
darlings, and taking Peter by one hand and Macrina by the other, said,
“Lord, I offer to Thee my firstfruits and my tithe. Accept them, O Lord,
and pour the floods of Thy grace into both their hearts.” They were her
last words. She died in 373, and was laid beside her husband whom she
had loved so well. The grief of Macrina was not to be expressed. She had
been the inseparable companion of her mother since her earliest infancy,
and they had not had a thought or wish but what was in common.
Before Macrina had recovered from this blow she was called on to endure
another. Her favourite brother, Naucratius, was found dead in the field
along with his servant Chrysapius, without it being known what had
caused their death.
Six years later she was called to mourn the loss of her eldest brother,
S. Basil. It was she who, with his friend Gregory Nazianzen, had been
the means of turning his heart entirely to God. As a young man he had
been disposed to push his way as a statesman. In 355 Basil had been at
school with Julian, afterwards Emperor, and an apostate from the faith,
and with Gregory, who was the son of the Bishop of Nazianzus. Basil had
not formed a high opinion of the former, but with Gregory “it was one
soul in two bodies.” On returning to Cæsarea after his father’s death,
Basil turned towards a life in the world, and a prospect of advancement
in official life opened to him. It was then that Macrina had exerted all
her influence over him, and gave him that final direction which made of
him so glorious a saint and teacher of the Church.
And now Macrina had lost him.
In the month of September or October in the year following the death of
S. Basil, Gregory—now Bishop of Nyssa—was present at the Council held at
Antioch, and on leaving it he resolved on paying a visit to Macrina. He
had not seen her since the death of their brother Basil, and he wished
to talk with her about him. The journey was long, and the snows were
already powdering the lower ranges of the lofty mountains he had to
pass.
On the night previous to his arrival on the banks of the Iris, after a
tedious and long day’s travel, he had a dream. It seemed to him that he
held relics in his hands that emitted a blaze of white light.
When he awoke he wondered what this dream could signify, for he was not
above the superstition of his age which attributed importance to dreams;
but as he neared the monastery he met a servant who told him that
Macrina was dangerously ill, and Gregory at once concluded that his
dream was a portent of her approaching dissolution.
Sick at heart, he pressed forward, and arrived at the villa. Those
within came forth to welcome him, except the sisters, who remained in
the church, sorrowful at the prospect of losing their best friend, yet
glad that she should see her brother before her death.
Gregory at once entered the church and prayed, and gave his episcopal
benediction to all. Then he asked to be conducted to Macrina.
We have an account of the last scene from his own pen, and this shall be
given with only a little condensation.
“A woman who was there opened the door to me, and led me within. I found
my sister lying on the ground, on a plank covered with sackcloth (the
Cilician material made of goat’s hair, much in use for blankets) and
with a pillow of the same supporting her head. She was very ill, but
when she saw me, unable on account of her great weakness to rise and
meet me, she lifted herself on one elbow, placing the other hand on the
ground for her support. I ran to her, and insisted on laying her down
again as she had been. Then she lifted her hands to Heaven and said, ‘I
thank Thee, O Lord my God, in that Thou hast fulfilled the desire of my
heart.’
“She did her utmost to conceal from us what a difficulty she found in
breathing, so as not to increase our distress; and her face was bright
and smiling, and she spoke of such matters as she thought pleasing to
us. But when we came to mention Basil, then my face expressed the grief
I was in at his loss. But she, on the contrary, spoke of the matter with
serenity of soul and elevation of mind, so that I felt myself as though
carried up above all worldly considerations into heavenly regions with
her.
“Presently she said, ‘Brother, you have had a tedious journey, and must
be very tired: I pray you take a little rest.’ And although it was a
delight to me to listen to her, yet I obeyed; and I went forth into the
garden, where was a pleasant shady walk. However, I was in such trouble
of mind that I could admire nothing, and I could think only of what must
shortly happen.
“I suppose she must have divined my thoughts, for she sent word to me
not to fret, as she hoped speedily to be better; but she really meant
that she would escape from her present pains, and be with God, for whom
her soul ever thirsted. I got up when I heard this, and went to see her
again. Then, when we were together, she began to talk about old times,
since our childhood, and all as calmly and consequently as though she
were reading out of a book. She talked of the mercies shown by God to
our father, mother, and all the family.
“I wanted to tell her about my troubles when the Emperor Valens banished
me for the Faith, and of other troubles in which I had been involved;
but she cut me short with ‘Never lose sight of the obligations you owe
to God. Think chiefly of the advantages you have received from Him.’
“As she was speaking we heard the song of the virgins calling to
vespers, and my sister bade me go to the church. Thus passed the night,
and when day dawned I could see clearly by her condition that it would
be her last, for the fever had exhausted her last powers.
“My soul was agitated by double feelings: one was grief, for nature
would make me feel, and I knew that the words I heard were the last that
would be uttered by one very dear to me; the other was admiration at the
calm and trust with which she awaited death.
“The sun was nigh setting without her having lost the force of her mind.
Then she ceased to speak to us, but folded her hands and fixed her eyes
on her heavenly Bridegroom. Her little bed was turned with the feet to
the east, and she spoke to Him in a low voice, which we could hardly
hear. We did, however, collect some of her words: ‘O Lord, Thou
deliverest us from the fear of death; Thou makest the close of life the
commencement of a new and truer life. Thou sufferest us to sleep awhile,
and then wilt call us with the trumpet at the end of time. To the earth
Thou entrustest the dust of which Thy hands have fashioned us, to
reclaim it and clothe it with immortality and glory. Lord, Thou who on
the Cross didst pardon the malefactor, remember me in Thy kingdom.’
“Then Macrina made the sign of the cross on her eyes, her mouth, and her
heart; and, the strength of the fever having parched her tongue, we
could no longer follow her, but saw that her lips continued to move. She
closed her eyes; but when a lamp was brought into the room she opened
them, and made a sign that she desired to recite vespers. But her tongue
failed her, only her spirit was active, and her lips and hands moved as
before, and we understood when she had finished, by her again signing
herself.
“Finally she drew a long, deep sigh, and passed away in prayer. Seeing
what had taken place, and remembering a wish she had expressed to me, in
our last conversation, that I should render her the last offices, I put
out my shaking hand to her face to close the eyes and mouth. But I did
this only to fulfil my promise, for really there was no need, as eyes
and mouth were closed, so that she appeared rather to be sleeping than
dead. Her hands lay on her breast, and her body rested modestly, as that
of a virgin.”
When Macrina was being prepared for burial, there was no other raiment
of hers found save her veil, her mantle, habit, and a pair of worn-out
shoes. Then Gregory gave one of his own tunics for clothing his sister’s
body, and over her was cast her mother’s black cloak; “and,” says
Gregory, “the blackness of this cloak made her face seem so much the
whiter, as though it shone with light.”
As she was being clothed, a widow, who loved her and attended to these
last offices, untied a slender string that was round her neck, and
released a little cross and an iron ring.
“Keep the cross,” said Gregory to the widow, “as a remembrance of her;
and I shall ever preserve the ring.”
Who can tell? Perhaps that poor little iron ring was the reminiscence of
her engagement to the young man to whom she had long ago been betrothed,
and to whom she had remained ever faithful.
[Illustration: S. GENEVIÈVE.]