Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 69

General Introduction
49
according to the seasons, their food was plain and their fasts frequent. In the course of the clothing ceremony the candidate's head was shaved in the shape of a cross. Their spiritual Mother or Superior was an ordained deaconess who directed the nuns in her charge and exercised certain functions in the church.28 These monasteries disappeared by the end of the XIV century, probably with the almost total eclipse of Christianity in those regions.
Macrina, sister of St Basil and St Gregory of Nyssa
The eldest of ten children, she was promised is marriage at the age of twelve, but shortly afterwards the young man was carried off by some sickness and she decided to remain a virgin. She assisted her widowed mother in the upbringing of her brothers and sisters, among them the two well-known monk-bishops, Basil and Gregory of Nyssa. Later on Macrina and her mother, after giving away their goods to the poor, withdraw to Amenesis on the banks of the Iris in the province of Pontus.29 In this retired spot, along with their women-servants, they led a zealous monastic life similar in all respects to that of the monks established on the other side of the river, following as they also did the rule of St Basil.30 Macrina was a spiritual Mother beyond compare, exercising this function not only for her companions, but also for her brothers, the monks. St Gregory of Nyssa who came to visit her during the last days of her earthly life, in 380, has left a descritpion of her, in the form of a panegyric, of great depth and simplicity. He does not hide his own admiration and veneration for the outstanding virtues and strength of character of her whom he calls "the great Macrina" and "my spiritual mentor" 31
28 Cf. Fiey, 1965. pp. 281-306 for a description of the life of the monastery.
29 This region corresponds with present-day Turkey. It is bordered by the Black Sea, of which the Eastern shore was formerly Armenia. The Iris is nowadays called the Kizil Irmak.
30 This rule still prevails in Eastern monasticism.
31 Cf. Gregory of Nyssa: "La vie de Macrine" (Quéré-Jaulmes, 1968, pp. 239-274.)