Biographical Background
An older sister of Basil and Gregory of Nyssa, Makrina, became a nun and converted the family's estate into a monastic community. Abbess Makrina there fostered the education and development of the three Cappadocians by providing a peaceful shelter for study and meditation. Basil the Great was the second oldest of Makrina's brothers, the eldest being the famous Christian jurist Naucratius, and another brother, Peter, also became a bishop. The grandparents had been martyrs, and their mother was also recognized as a saint.
Read more about this topic: Cappadocian Fathers
Famous quotes containing the words biographical and/or background:
“Biography, in its purer form, confined to the ended lives of the true and brave, may be held the fairest meed of human virtue—one given and received in entire disinterestedness—since neither can the biographer hope for acknowledgment from the subject, not the subject at all avail himself of the biographical distinction conferred.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)