MACON (MATISCO): A city of Burgundy, in which three synods were held. One, in 581, at which twenty-one bishops were present, issued nineteen canons, of which the seventh threatens with excommunication any civil judge who dares to proteed against a clerk, except in criminal cams, while canons 13-16 are aimed at the Jews. Another, in 585, at which forty-three bishops were present in person, and twenty were represented by deputies, issued twenty canons, of which the eighth forbade any one who had sought refuge in the sanctuary to be touched without the consent of the priest; while the ninth and tenth forbade the civil power to procued against a bishop, except through his metropolitan, or against a priest or deacon, except through his bishop. The third was held between 617 and 627, and decided against an attempt to do away with the rule of St. Columban. The acts and canons are not extant.

Bibliography: Hefele ConciZienprarhichte, iii. 36-41, 74, Eng. transl., iv. 402-409, 444.

MACRINA, ma-cri'na: The name of two female saints of the early Church.

1. Macrina the Elder: Grandmother of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa; d. at Neoemsarea c. 340. Of her life little is known. She seems to have married into a rich and distinguished family of Pontus, and Basil assumes (Epist. cciv.) that she was remembered in Neocaesarea for more than a generation after her death. He says that she told him stories of Gregory Thaumaturgus, and influenced his life by her teaching in his childhood. Gregory mentions (Vita Macrince junioris, MPG, xlvi. 961-980) that she suffered persecution, togather with her husband, for her faith; and Gregory Nazianzen in his panegyric on Basil. (Oratio sliii.; MPG, sxcvi. 501) states that they took refuge in the forest of Pontus and remained there considerable time. Neither the date nor the duration of this voluntary exile is certain, since the statements of Gregory Nazianzen that it lasted seven years and took place during the reign of Maximinus (who ruled only from 311 to 313) do not agree with each other. Her day is Jan. 14.

2. Macrina the Younger: Granddaughter of the preceding and the sister of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa; b. in Pontua c. 329; d. at a family estate on the Iris in the same province in the latter part of 379. She was the oldest of ten children and was betrothed at the age of twelve to a young jurist of distinguished family. He died, however, before the marriage, and Macrina seems to have seized this pretext to adopt a life of celibacy and asceticism. After the death of her father, Basilius, she remained with her mother Emmelia until Basil returned from his studies about 358, when she, together with her mother and her servants and slaves (now ranked as her sisters), retired to the banks of the Iris to lead the life of a nun. To her brothers, particularly the youngest, Peter, who afterward became bishop of Sebaste, this place was a school of earnest Christianity, end it was also

visited by Gregory Nazianzen and Eustathius of Sebaste. When Emmelia died shortly before 370, Macrina became the head of the community. Her brother Gregory was present at her death and has preserved the memories of the scene both in his Vita Macrinte and in his treatise On the Soul and the Resurrection. Her day is July 1®.

(F. Loofs.)

Bibliography: 1. The sources are indicated in the tent. Consult: ASS, Jan., i. 952-3; DCB, iii. 779; and the literature under Basil, Saint; and Gregory of Nyssa. 2. The life is moat accessible in ASS, July, iv. 589-804; DCB, iii., 779-781; and ut sup. under 1.