Her Bright Merits: Essays Honoring Ingrid J. Peterson, O.S.F.

Clare and the Younger Macrina: Hagiography and Healing

Clare and the Younger MaCrina: hagiographY and healing FeliCitY dorsett, o.s.F. Those who read about fourth-century Macrina the Younger and Clare of Assisi (1193-1253) may be struck by a remarkable number of parallels, despite the approximately eight centuries and the languages that divide them. Both are Christian virgin saints who espoused a monastic life near the Mediterranean. This paper will explore these striking similarities found in the lives of Saints Macrina and Clare. Information about Gregory of Nyssa’s sister Macrina comes from his eulogizing letter about her life and On the Soul and Resurrection, cast in the form of a deathbed dialogue between Macrina and him. On the other hand, knowledge about Clare derives from more numerous sources: Clare’s own writings, the letter of notification of her death, the testimony of witnesses in her process of canonization, the bull proclaiming her sainthood, a versified legend, and the prose Legend, often but not universally, attributed to Thomas of Celano.1 There are also later hagiographical and 1 See Regis J. Armstrong, The Lady: Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, rev. ed. (New York: New City Press, 2006), 272-75. The question of the authorship of Clare’s Legend has been long discussed. Dutch scholars have recently favored Thomas of Celano, relying on a study based heavily on internal evidence and a comparison of The Legend of Clare of Assisi with other works known to be by Thomas of Celano. More recent Italian scholarship has avoided this identification, as has Regis J. Armstrong, who holds it as “unlikely.” Apparently, though, no one has explained away the internal evidence; it seems quite possible that Thomas of Celano was indeed author. However, this discussion of authorship is not intrinsic to comparing the two lives. I have not been able to see the Dutch work. FELICITY DORSETT 40 liturgical texts and hymns. For the purposes of this paper I shall rely mostly on the lives of Macrina and Clare. a sketCh oF MaCrina’s liFe Macrina the Younger, the oldest of ten children, was born around 327 to a noble family of Cappadocia.Her grandparents on both sides had suffered, one fatally, during the persecution of Diocletian. Her grandmother, St. Macrina the Elder, had collaborated with St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, the first bishop of Neo-Caesarea in Pontus. St. Basil, Macrina’s son, bishop and well-known rhetorician, married St. Emmelia, who managed the family estates.2 Together the couple continued the family tradition of prayer, hospitality and care for the poor and sick.3 Three brothers become well-known as St. Basil of Caesarea or Basil the Great, born in 329, St. Gregory of Nyssa, born in 331 or later, and St. Peter of Sebaste, the youngest, born in 341. Another brother Naucratios, between Basil and Gregory, gave up a very promising rhetorical career for a rural life of prayer, poverty, and assisting ill and elderly peasants. His life was cut short by an accident, as he hunted food for those in his care. When husband and father Basil died in 340, twelve year-old Macrina provided strong support to grieving family members, including her pregnant mother, who was concerned about the effects of Macrina’s reading classical poetry and drama.4 Macrina educated young Peter and repeatedly urged her brothers, especially Basil and Gregory, to be baptized. Grandmother Macrina helped to instruct the younger Basil in religion.5 Her younger namesake deflated Basil’s self2 Karen Rae Keck, “Macrina,” The Ecole Glossary (1997), http://www2. evansville.edu/ecoleweb/glossary/macrina.html. 3 Laura Swan, The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, Lives, and Stories of Early Christian Women (New York: Paulist Press, 2001), 128. 4 Raymond Van Dam, Kingdom of Snow: Roman Rule and Greek Culture in Cappadocia (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), 182. 5 Clifford Stevens, “Macrina the Elder,” The One Year Book of Saints (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor) www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/MACRINA .htm, 1. CLARE AND THE YOUNGER MACRINA 41 conceit after his return from university. Even before her father’s death, and after her fiancé’s, Macrina had insisted on remaining unwed, staying with her mother and living an ascetic life. Macrina knew the psalms by heart and prayed them constantly.6 Skilled in spinning and baking, she gave away many of her clothes and convinced her mother to turn their home at Annisa into a monastery, probably in 352, with everything...