The life of St Emilia, Mother of St Basil the Great
What Emmelia gave those ten mattered more than any of that comfort: from their earliest years she turned them toward prayer and toward the conviction that a life spent in the Church's service outweighed anything the world could offer instead. Five of the ten are venerated as saints in their own right: Basil, who grew to be known as Basil the Great; Macrina, remembered afterward as Macrina the Younger; Gregory, who became bishop of Nyssa; Peter, who rose to become bishop of Sebaste; and Theosebia, a deaconess.
Once her children had grown and scattered into their own callings, Emmelia let herself be won over by her own eldest daughter's persuasion and set the world aside for good. Mother and daughter withdrew together to family land in Pontus, along the river Iris near the wilderness retreat where her son Basil had settled, and there raised a monastery for women.
She reposed on May 30, 375. Her chief commemoration falls on January 1, though a second date in May also appears across the sources without full agreement on the day. She is remembered less by any deed of her own hand than by the household of holiness her quiet, early teaching first set in motion.
