By Bishop Gregorios of Mesaoria
The Church celebrates today the memory of Venerable Dius of Antioch, who lived during the reign of Theodosius the Great.
He was highlight educated in theology and was distinguished himself in virtue and wisdom. He was ordained a priest in Constantinople, where he distinguished himself in his great social work and passed away peacefully.
Today, we also celebrate the memory of Venerable Makrina, the daughter of Basil the Elder and Emmelia and the sister of Basil the Great, Naucratius, Peter of Sebaste, and Saint Gregory of Nyssa.
The life of Venerable Makrina is a living proof that the family, when it is in the path of Jesus, can be “the church that meets at their house.”
Venerable Makrina, who was older than her siblings, helped her mother with the upbringing of her younger brothers and sisters, and devoted herself to her religion, becoming a nun, and practicing asceticism in a women’s monastery in Pontos, near Iris River. According to her Vita, written by her brother Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, she spent the rest of her life with profound prayer, rigorous ascesis and glorious charity works.
SOURCE: Church of Cyprus
