Macrina the Virgin-Philosopher and

Bride of Christ
On Virginity: the Inspiration!

Methodius: Symposium
Almost all people run the risk of being ignorant of… the countless advantages of
virginity over all the others offered by virtue which we cultivate for the
purifaction and beautification of the soul. The word virginity (parthenia)
becomes the word near-the-divine (partheia) by dropping just one letter, just
as virginity alone makes like God those who have been initiated into her pure
rites.

Wise men have said that our life is a festal assembly, and that we have come as
though into a theatre to show the drama of truth, that is of righteousness, and
our adversaries and rivals are the devil and demons. Thus it is necessary for us
to look upwards and take wing…
Gregory of Nyssa: On Virginity
The aim of this discourse is to create in the reader a desire for the virtuous life… the
treatise suggests, as a kind of door or entrace into a nobler state, the life of
virginity.

It is not easy for those involved in every day activities also to devote themselves
quietly to the more divine life; nor is it easy for those diverted in every way by the
business of life to settle down undistractedly and contendedly to higher pursuits.

The philosophic life is impossible to achieve when people are preoccupied with
worldly considerations.
The Premises:
• Virginity is beyond praise
• Virginity is the peculiar achievement of the divine and incorporeal nature
• Virginity is purity and beauty

• Marriage is difficult. Everything disturbing and bad in life has its beginning in
marriage since marriage is focussed on ‚this-worldly‘ realities and is constantly
threatened by death
• Virginity is stronger than the power of death

• The soul must be freed from passion and be the guide to bodily purity
• It is necessary for every faculty of the soul to aim at virtue
• It is impossible to serve the bodily pleasures and also reap the enjoyment of God

• It is difficult for the soul which is divided to attain its goal

• Habit is difficult to change
• The one who has purified himself will see the divine beauty in himself

• It is not necessary to exercise self-control beyond the proper measure –

perfection is the golden mean.
• It is only possible to learn this life by one who lives it.
Gregory of Nyssa: On Virginity
• Virginity is revealed through Jesus Christ

Jesus showed by the manner of His incarnation (the virgin birth) this great
secret:

• that purity is the only complete indication of the presence of God and of His
coming,
• and that no one can in reality secure this for himself, unless he has altogether
estranged himself from the passions of the flesh.
• What happened in the stainless Mary when the fullness of the Godhead
which was in Christ shone out through her, that happens in every soul that
leads by rule the virgin life.

• Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
The most important examples of virginity:

• The Father: It is a paradox that virginity is found in Him, Who has a Son and yet without
passion has begotten Him.

• The Son: Again a paradox; that the Son should be known to us by virginity

• The Holy Spirit: It is seen, too, in the inherent and incorruptible purity of the Holy Spirit;
for when you have named the pure and incorruptible you have named virginity.

Other models of virginity:

• Elijah
• John the Baptist
• Mary
• Miriam
• St. Paul who bore many spiritual children
Bodily virginity is a tool:

to free us from passions so that we are capable of purely receiving Godly delights.
Only a pure heart, is able to receive these delights.

Virginity is a channel between heaven and earth:

Virginity… while it remains in Heaven with the Father of spirits, and moves in the
dance of the celestial powers, nevertheless stretches out hands for man's
salvation; that while it is the channel which draws down the Deity to share man's
estate, it keeps wings for man's desires to rise to heavenly things.

Virginity is the practical method in the holy life. It enables people to share
similarities with the spiritual nature.
Virginity is the preparation for the marriage with lady Wisdom

If a man is going to carry out the advice of Solomon and take for his helpmate and
life-companion that true Wisdom of which he says, Love her, and she shall keep
you…Proverbs 4:6, then he will prepare himself in a manner worthy of such a love,

The pursuit of virginity is a human pursuit, applying equally to men and women:

It is plain moreover that the argument applies equally to men and women... There
is neither male nor female Galatians 3:28, the Apostle says; Christ is all, and in all
Colossians 3:11
Virginity and Union with God

• Virginity is that which makes a person spotless and holy

• Virginity describes, above all, the perfection of God
• Those who live as virgins are, in a way, deified: they participate in God‘s purity

What happened in Mary‘s virginity happens, in a spiritual way, to all those who
live a pure life.
Virginity is stronger than death

For someone who lives a virginal life and desires God, death is the fulfilment of
their desire

Just as, in the age of Mary the mother of God, he who had reigned from Adam to
her time found, when he came to her and dashed his forces against the fruit of
her virginity as against a rock, that he was shattered to pieces upon her, so in
every soul which passes through this life in the flesh under the protection of
virginity, the strength of death is in a manner broken and annulled, for he does
not find the places upon which he may fix his sting.

‘We should wean ourselves from this life in the flesh, which has an inevitable
follower, death; and we should search for a manner of life which does not bring
death in its train. Now the life of Virginity is such a life.’

However, the passions must be purified so that they can be used appropriately
Purity of Heart: Like water properly chanelled

Now pleasure is one in kind, as we learn from the experts; as water parted into various
channels from one single fountain, it spreads itself over the pleasure-lover through the
various avenues of the senses… 21

Imagine a stream flowing from a spring and dividing itself off into a number of
accidental channels. As long as it proceeds so, it will be useless for any purpose of
agriculture, the dissipation of its waters making each particular current small and
feeble, and therefore slow.

But if one were to mass these wandering and widely dispersed rivulets again into one
single channel, he would have a full and collected stream for the supplies which life
demands.

Just so the human mind (so it seems to me), as long as its current spreads itself in all
directions over the pleasures of the sense, has no power that is worth the naming of
making its way towards the Real Good;

but once you call it back and collect it upon itself… it will find no obstacle in mounting to
higher things, and in grasping realities. 7
Returning to purity requires a return to the original nature

• Marriage was the last step out of paradise (so Gregory of Nyssa)
• Virginity is therefore the first step back to paradise
• There was neither death nor passion in paradise
• Through virginity we can overcome both
Does this mean that we should destroy the passions?

We advise, then, that love's passion be placed in the soul's purest shrine…and devoted
entirely to God.

• Then indignation, and anger, and hatred must be as watch-dogs to be roused only
against attacking sins; they must follow their natural impulse only against the thief
and the enemy who…comes only for that, that he may steal, and mangle, and destroy.

• Courage and confidence are to be weapons in our hands to baffle any sudden surprise
and attack of the wicked who advance.

• Hope and patience are to be the staffs to lean upon, whenever we are weary with the
trials of the world.

• As for sorrow, we must have a stock of it ready to apply…in the hour of repentance for
our sins; Righteousness will be our rule of straightforwardness, guarding us from
stumbling either in word or deed...

• The love of gain, which is a large, incalculably large, element in every soul, when once
applied to the desire for God, will bless the man who has it;

• Wisdom and prudence will be our advisers as to our best interests.

Someone who does not deal with the passions in this way is like a soldier who has
put his armour on backwards.

But suppose a man does not apply the aforesaid faculties of the soul to their proper
use, but reverses their intended purpose; suppose he wastes his love upon the
basest objects, and stores up his hatred only for his own kinsmen; suppose he
welcomes iniquity, plays the man only against his parents, is bold only in
absurdities, fixes his hopes on emptiness, chases prudence and wisdom from his
company, takes gluttony and folly for his mistresses, and uses all his other
opportunities in the same fashion, he would indeed be a strange and unnatural
character to a degree beyond any one's power to express.

If we could imagine any one putting his armour on all the wrong way, reversing the
helmet so as to cover his face while the plume nodded backward, putting his feet
into the cuirass, and fitting the greaves on to his breast, changing to the right side
all that ought to go on the left and vice versa, and how such a hoplite would be
likely to fare in battle, then we should have an idea of the fate in life which is sure
to await him whose confused judgment makes him reverse the proper uses of his
soul's faculties. 18
Purity is in us, hidden and dirty but we must search for it and cleanse it

The woman with the lost Drachma

• The drachmen are the virtues and the other drachmen are of no use to the woman
when the one is lost.
• She must
• Light a candle (Common sense enlightens hidden principles)
• Now she knows:
• That which is lost is hidden in her and can be found again
• What is lost?
• The king (God) who is not, however hopelessly lost, but who is dirtied and hidden
by impurity
• When she finds it:
• The neighbours – her common sense and affections and everything else in side of
her – come and celebrate with her
• They, too, are transformed through the meeting with the image of God on the
drachma. Chapter 12
Virginity is the way, but we must understand that the goal is virtue which is
found through beauty. Why then, do many people not choose this path?

We all seek beauty but: “the man of half-grown intelligence, when he observes an object
which is bathed in the glow of a seeming beauty, thinks that that object is in its essence
beautiful... He will not go deeper into the subject.

Lack of training which would enable them to distinguish between true Beauty and the
reverse results in men giving up the search after the true Beauty. “Some slide into mere
sensuality. Others incline in their desires to dead metallic coin. Others limit their
imagination of the beautiful to worldly honours, fame, and power. There is another class
which is enthusiastic about art and science. The most debased make their gluttony the
test of what is good.”

But the other, whose mind's eye is clear, and who can inspect such appearances, will
neglect those elements which are the material only upon which the Form of Beauty
works; to him they will be but the ladder by which he climbs to the prospect of that
Intellectual Beauty, in accordance with their share in which all other beauties get their
existence and their name.

How is this obtained?

Few can be such strangers to evangelic mysteries as not to know that there is
but one vehicle on which man's soul can mount into the heavens…through the
power of the Holy Spirit.

What is the result?

Perhaps these examples have led us gradually on to the discovery that we can
be changed into something better than ourselves; and it has been proved as
well that this union of the soul with the incorruptible Deity can be
accomplished in no other way but by herself attaining by her virgin state to
the utmost purity possible—a state which, being like God, will enable her to
grasp that to which it is like, while she places herself like a mirror beneath the
purity of God, and moulds her own beauty at the touch and the sight of the
Archetype of all beauty. 11
Discernment is absolutely necessary. Asceticism is a means, not a goal

Farmers know how to separate the wheat from the chaff so that each can be
employed for its proper purpose: “the one for the sustenance of man, the other for
burning and the feeding of animals.

The labourer in the field of temperance will in like manner distinguish the
satisfaction from the mere delight, and will fling this latter…to be burned…but will
take the other, in proportion to the actual need, with thankfulness.

Asceticism can go too far

Many, however, slide into the very opposite kind of excess, and unconsciously to
themselves, in their over-preciseness, laboriously thwart their own design; they let
their soul fall down the other side from the heights of Divine elevation to the level
of dull thoughts and occupations, where their minds are so bent upon regulations
which merely affect the body, that they can no longer walk in their heavenly
freedom and gaze above.
Purity enables clear vision

To one who has cleansed all the powers of his being from every form of vice,
the Beauty which is essential, the source of every beauty and every good,
will become visible. The visual eye, purged from its blinding humour, can
clearly discern objects even on the distant sky ; so to the soul by virtue of her
innocence there comes the power of taking in that Light; and the real
Virginity, the real zeal for chastity, ends in no other goal than this, viz. the
power thereby of seeing God. 11
The Virgin-Philosopher
and Bride in the
Commentary on Song of
Songs
Virgin-philosopher in the commentary on Song of Songs

Song of Songs comes as the high-point after Proverbs and Ecclesiastes

Proverbs praises Lady wisdom:

„He calls the same one “wisdom” and “understanding, “perception” and
“knowledge” and the like.”

In Proverbs:
Solomon begins to array the youth as a bridegroom, wanting to prepare him
for this marriage with Wisdom; already he commands him to look toward
the divine bridal chamber. For he says: “Do not desert her and she will
sustain you. Be in love with her, and she will keep you… When you walk, bring
her and let her be with you. Should you sleep, let her guard you, so that
when you awaken she may speak with you.” Homily 1
Virgin-philosopher in the commentary on Song of Songs

In Song of Songs:
What is described there is an account of a wedding, but what is intellectually
discerned is the human soul’s mingling with the divine.

That is why the one who is called “son” in Proverbs is here called “bride”
and Wisdom, correspondingly, is transferred into the role of the
bridegroom.

This is to assure that the human person, once separated form the
bridegroom, might be betrothed to God as a holy virgin and, once joined to
the Lord, may become “one spirit” through being mingled with that which is
inviolate and impassable, having become purified thought rather than heavy
flesh. Homily 1
Virgin-philosopher and Bride in the commentary on Song of Songs

Therefore:

Ahead of the Bridegroom it presents the virgin, who is blamelessly giving voice to
her desire and praying that she may at some stage savor the Bridegroom‘s kiss.

For the virgin‘s good matchmakers – the patriarchs and prophets and lawgivers –
brought the divine gifts of grace to the betrothed virgin.
Virgin-philosopher and Bride in the commentary on Song of Songs

Certain companions and contemporaries attend to her words and stimulate

the Bride to greater desire.

Then the Bridegroom appears, bringing along a troop of his friends and boon
companions.

These would be either the ministering spirits by which human beings are
rescued or the holy prophets who, hearing the voice ofthe Bridegroom, both
rejoice and exult because the undefiled marriage is being consummated.

Gregory warns against a fleshly reading of the text:

Let us then come within the holy of holies, that is the Song of Songs…
Virgin-philosopher and Bride in the commentary on Song of Songs

Young maidens have loved you…

Young maidens of this sort, who have made increase by the practice of virtues
and have already participated in the mysteries of the inner divine chamber as
their youthfulness prescribes, love and delight in the beauty of the
Bridegroom and through love turn to themselves.

For this Bridegroom returns the love of those who love him. Speaking in the
person of Wisdom he says „I love those who love me“ (Prov 8.17) and then,
„With those who love me I share what I possess“ (and he is her possession)
„and I will fill their treasure house with good things.“ (Prov 8.21).
Virgin-philosopher and Bride in the commentary on Song of Songs

Now what awakens their love is the sweet scent of the perfume, toward
which, as they run unceasingly, they stretch themselves out for what lies
ahead, forgetting what lies behind (Phiil 3.13).

Hence it says: We will run after you, toward the fragrance of your perfumed
ointments…

But it is those who do not yet possess the fullness of virtue and are still
immature who promise that they will pursue the goal toward which the
fragrance of the perfumes points them…

the more perfect soul on the other hand, who has more eagerly „been
stretched out toward what lies ahead“ already attains the goal for the sake of
which the course is run and is reckoned worthy of the goods that the treasure
house contains.
Virgin-philosopher and bride in the commentary on Song of Songs: The Virgin
becomes a Teacher

Those who were first made disciples by grace and became eyewitnesses of the
Word (Luke 1.2) did not keep the Good to themselves. Rather did they work the
same grace, by transmission, in those who were their companions.

That is why the young women say to the Bride – who because she came face to
face with the Word was the first to be filled with good things and to be adjudged
worthy of hidden mysteries – let us rejoice and be glad in you (for we share the
joy of your exultation); and „As you love the breasts of the Word more than
wine, so too let us imitate you and love your breasts, through which you give
‚babes in Christ‘ milk to drink, more than wine that human beings make.

(Transition to John lying on Jesus‘ breast and convolution of John and the Bride):

And the reason why we love the flowing milk of your teaching is that
Righteousness has loved you. For this is the discipe whom Jesus loved. And Jesus
is righteousness.
Macrina the Virgin-Philospher and
Bride of Christ
What designates a person as a philosopher?

• The appropriate training (paideia)

• The decision to „Remain alone“

• Lived philosophy

• A great thinker

• An acknowledged teacher
Paideia
Macrina was naturally gifted

Her natural powers were shown in every study to which her parents' judgment
directed her.
Paideia
She was nursed by her mother and taught by her as well:

Her natural powers were shown in every study to which her parents' judgment
directed her. The education of the child was her mother's task ; she did not,
however, employ the usual worldly method of education, which makes a
practice of using poetry as a means of training the early years of the child. For
she considered it disgraceful and quite unsuitable that a tender and plastic
nature should be taught either those tragic passions of womanhood which
afforded poets their suggestions and plots, or the indecencies of comedy to be,
so to speak, defiled with unseemly tales of " the harem."
Paideia
She studied the Wisdom of Solomon:

Her natural powers were shown in every study to which her parents' judgment
directed her. The education of the child was her mother's task ; she did not'
however, employ the usual worldly method of education, which makes a practice
of using poetry as a means of training the early years of the child. For she
considered it disgraceful and quite unsuitable, that a tender and plastic nature
should be taught either those tragic passions of womanhood which afforded
poets their suggestions and plots, or the indecencies of comedy to be, so to
speak, defiled with unseemly tales of " the harem."

Such parts of inspired Scripture as were comprehensible to young children

were the subject of the girl's studies; in particular the Wisdom of Solomon, and
those parts of it especially which have an ethical bearing.
Paideia
She lived with the Psalter as her closest companion

Her natural powers were shown in every study to which her parents' judgment
directed her. The education of the child was her mother's task ; she did not'
however, employ the usual worldly method of education, which makes a practice
of using poetry as a means of training the early years of the child. For she
considered it disgraceful and quite unsuitable, that a tender and plastic nature
should be taught either those tragic passions of womanhood which afforded
poets their suggestions and plots, or the indecencies of comedy to be, so to
speak, defiled with unseemly tales of " the harem."

Such parts of inspired Scripture as were comprehensible to young children were

the subject of the girl's studies; in particular the Wisdom of Solomon, and those
parts of it especially which have an ethical bearing. Nor was she ignorant of any
part of the Psalter but at stated times she recited every part of it. When she
rose from bed, or engaged in household duties' or rested, or partook of food' or
retired from table, when she went to bed or rose in the night for prayer, the
Psalter was her constant companion, like a good fellow traveler that never
deserted her.
Makrina fiancé dies and she decides to live as a philosopher:

But when the plan formed for her was shattered by the young man's death, she
said her father's intention was equivalent to a marriage, and resolved to remain
alone henceforward, just as if the intention had become accomplished fact.

And indeed her determination was more steadfast than could have been
expected from her age. For when her parents brought proposals of marriage to
her, as often happened owing to the number of suitors that came attracted by
the fame of her beauty, she would say that it was absurd and unlawful not to be
faithful to the marriage that had been arranged for her by her father… since in
the nature of things there was but one marriage, as there is one birth and one
death.

She persisted that the man who had been linked to her by her parents'
arrangement was not dead, but that she considered him who lived to God,
thanks to the hope of the resurrection, to be absent only, not dead; it was
wrong not to keep faith with the bridegroom who was away.
Living along… but with her mother!

she settled on one safeguard of her good resolution, in a resolve not to be separated
from her mother even for a moment of time.

…But the daughter's companionship was not a burden to her mother' nor profitless.
For the attentions received from her daughter were worth those of many
maidservants, and the benefits were mutual.

For the mother looked after the girl's soul, and the girl looked after her mother's
body,

and in all respects fulfilled the required services, even going so far as to prepare meals
for her mother with her own hands.
Not that she made this her chief business. But after she had anointed her hands by the
performance of religious duties- for she deemed that zeal for this was consistent with
the principles of her life- in the time that was left she prepared food for her mother by
her own toil.
Sharing the burden of the active life leads Macrina to perfection

She helped her mother to bear her burden of responsibilities. For she had four
sons and five daughters, and paid taxes to three different governors, since her
property was scattered in as many districts. In consequence her mother was
distracted with various anxieties, for her father had by this time departed this life.
In all these matters she shared her mother's toils, dividing her cares with her, and
lightening her heavy load of sorrows.

At one and the same time, thanks to her mother's guardianship, she was
keeping her own life blameless, so that her mother's eye both directed and
witnessed all she did;
and also by her own life she instructed her mother greatly, leading her to the
same mark, that of philosophy I mean, and gradually drawing her on to the
immaterial and more perfect life.
Virginity: General expecations

What does it mean to live as a Virgin?

• Put yourself under obedience to the father

or clerics
• Live an enclosed life in the family house or
with other virgins
• Remain enclosed in the house except for
visits to church
• Have no contact with men outside the family
• Wear a veil and otherwise feminine clothing
Virginity: practice and reality
What does it mean to live as a Virgin?
• Put yourself under obedience to the father
or clerics
• Live an enclosed life in the family house or
with other virgins
• Remain enclosed in the house except for
visits to church
• Have no contact with men outside the family
• Wear a veil and otherwise feminine clothing
But there were other virgins who:
• Did not place themselves under the father or
priests
• Acted in a priestly capacity
• Did not remain enclosed
• Lived in ‚spiritual marriages‘ with male
ascetics
• Shaved their heads and wore the male
clothing of philosophers
Virginity: Macrina‘s ‚golden mean‘
Macrina‘s approach to the ascetic/philosophical life:

• She was not under her father but rather under her mother.
• She live a contemplative life but
• Helped her mother with her work (which certainly meant that she was
sometimes away from the house and had contact with men outside the
family).
• Served her mother (prepared her bread).
• She was recognized by men as a great teacher and philosopher but honoured the
priesthood and did not desire to obtain to the office of priesthood.
• She had a ‚manly‘ soul but was clothed as a woman.

Basic qualities of the philosophical life in the Life of St. Macrina

• Obedience
• Service
• Renunciation
• Prayers and choir: the angelic life
• Acts of charity
• Living in common with the poor
Macrina the Teacher
Macrina directs Basil towards the path of Virtue

Macrina's brother, the great Basil, returned after his long period of education,
already a practised rhetorician. He was puffed up beyond measure with the
pride of oratory and looked down on the local dignitaries, excelling in his own
estimation all the men of leading and position.
Nevertheless Macrina took him in hand, and with such speed did she draw him
also toward the mark of philosophy that
he forsook the glories of this world and despised fame gained by speaking, and
deserted it for this busy life where one toils with one's hands. His renunciation of
property was complete, lest anything should impede the life of virtue.
Macrina coaches her mother in the wake of Naucratius’ death

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.

In consequence, her mother was not overwhelmed by the affliction, nor did she
behave in any ignoble and womanish way, so as to cry out at the calamity, or
tear her dress, or lament over the trouble, or strike up funeral chants with
mournful melodies.

On the contrary she resisted the impulses of nature, and quieted herself both
by such reflections as occurred to her spontaneously, and those that were
applied by her daughter to cure the ill.

…Besides which, the moral elevation always maintained by Macrina's life gave
her mother the opportunity of rejoicing over the blessings she enjoyed rather
than grieving over those that were missing.
Mutual teaching: Peter and Macrina

Macrina was helped most of all in achieving this great aim of her life by her own brother
Peter.

The eldest of the family, the subject of our story, took him soon after birth from the nurse's
breast and reared him herself and educated him on a lofty system of training, practising
him from infancy in holy studies, so as not to give his soul leisure to turn to vain things.

Thus having become all things to the lad - father, teacher, tutor, mother, giver of all good
advice-she produced such results that before the age of boyhood had passed, when he was
yet a stripling in the first bloom of tender youth, he aspired to the high mark of philosophy.

And, thanks to his natural endowments, he was clever in every art that involves handwork,
so that without any guidance he achieved a completely accurate knowledge of everything
that ordinary people learn by time and trouble.

Scorning to occupy his time with worldly studies, and having in nature a sufficient instructor
in all good knowledge, and always looking to his sister as the model of all good, he
advanced to such a height of virtue that in his subsequent life he seemed in no whit inferior
to the great Basil.
Makrina teaches Gregory: the macrocosm

Fever was drying up her strength and driving her on to death, yet she refreshed
her body as it were with dew, and thus kept her mind unimpeded in the
contemplation of heavenly things, in no way injured by her terrible weakness.

And if my narrative were not extending to an unconscionable length I would tell

everything in order, how she was uplifted as she discoursed to us on
• the nature of the soul and
• explained the reason of life in the flesh, and
• why man was made, and
• how he was mortal, and
• the origin of death and the
• nature of the journey from death to life again.
Makrina teaches Gregory: the microcosm

But when we saw her again, for she did not allow us to spend time by ourselves
in idleness, she began to recall her past life, beginning with childhood, and
describing it all in order as in a history.
• She recounted as much as she could remember of the life of our parents,
• and the events that took place both before and after my birth.

But her aim throughout was gratitude towards God, for she described our
parents, life not so much from the point of view of the reputation they enjoyed
in the eyes of contemporaries on account of their riches, as an example of the
divine blessing.

When Gregory complains, Macrina responds:

" Will you not cease to be insensible to the divine blessings? Will you not
remedy the ingratitude of your soul ? Will you not compare your position with
that of your parents? …Do you fail to recognise the cause of such great
blessings, that it is your parents, prayers that are lifting you up on high, you that
have little or no equipment within yourself for such success ? ''
Macrina teaches the virgins in her community:

At her death:
They were not bewailing the loss of human companionship and
guidance, nor any other such thing as men grieve over when disaster
comes. But it seemed as if they had been torn away from their hope in
God and the salvation of their souls, and so they cried and bewailed…
Saddest of all in their grief were those who called on her as mother and
nurse. These were they whom she picked up, exposed by the roadside in
the time of famine. She had nursed and reared them, and led them to
the pure and stainless life.
Macrina the Bride goes towards the True Bridegroom

Just as a runner who has passed his adversary and already drawn near to the
end of the stadium…rejoices inwardly… and announces his victory to his
sympathisers among the spectators-in such a frame of mind did she, too, tell
us to cherish better hopes for her, for she was already looking to the prize of
her heavenly calling, and all but uttering the apostle's words: " Henceforward
is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the righteous Judge shall
give me'', for " I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have
kept the faith.''

I think she revealed to the bystanders that divine and pure love of the
invisible bridegroom, which she kept hidden and nourished in the secret
places of the soul, and she published abroad the secret disposition of her
heart-her hurrying towards Him Whom she desired, that she might speedily
be with Him, loosed from the chains of the body. For in very truth her course
was directed towards virtue, and nothing else could divert her attention.