Macrina lived in the third and fourth century AD, and along with her husband endured significant persecution under emperors Galerius and Diocletian, eventually hiding out near the Black Sea to survive.
Macrina learned theology from St Gregory Thaumaturgus and passed it on to her children and grandchildren. Who were her grandchildren? Only St Basil of Caesarea, St Gregory of Nyssa, and St Macrina the Younger, among others. That's a frighteningly large number of saints coming from one family.
What an incredible legacy! She was a bridge from the ancient Church to the thoughts and actions of the Cappadocian mothers and fathers, whose theology helped to form both the Eastern and Western Churches.
It is fascinating that apart from these brief biographical details little is known about Macrina's life, and relatively scant attention is paid to her. But without her endurance, faithfulness, teaching and example we would be bereft of several Doctors of the Church and all the good that came from them.
What can we learn from this? Do not neglect your own household of faith. Time spent in the care, education and formation of children and grandchildren is not wasted time, not energy that should automatically be given elsewhere.
This time and energy can sometimes feel wasteful. Like when you are cleaning up the vomit of one child who started vomiting because another child was vomiting and they didn't want to be left out, or something. (Real life example). In those moments you start thinking: "I could be doing other things with my life."
But St Macrina the Elder disagrees, and you should pay attention to her, because she sired roughly twelve saints. And while I am absolutely certain a lot of that saint-making came as a result of her intellectual brilliance and the theological training of children and grandchildren, I am just as sure that a lot of it came through the way she cleaned up vomit, or other similar tasks. The saints from her family were consumed not just by theology but also by the active pursuit of justice and goodness. That is something you don't just learn from books. It is something you learn watching your grandmother lovingly wade knee-deep through future-saint throw-up.
Model faithfulness to your family, and pass on what you know to them, live lovingly and authentically in the small and the big moments. Let your life scream out what you believe, and so invest yourself in your family's present and future.
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