Saint Marcellina

Marcellina was the only sister of Ambrose and the eldest of three children. ¹³ J. P. Kirsch, in the Catholic Encyclopedia, dates her birth about 330-335 and says she was "born most probably at Trier, where her father resided as praefectus praetorio Galliarum," the prefect of the Gauls. ¹ The introduction on santiebeati.it, from the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire, gives Rome or Trier and a year near 327. ⁹ The encyclopedia's article on Ambrose says she was about ten years older than he was. ³

Before her father's death, Kirsch writes, she had already gone to Rome, the home of the family, and chosen a life of consecrated virginity and asceticism. ¹ After the father died, about 354, the mother brought the two boys to Rome as well, and the encyclopedia says the widow "was greatly assisted in the religious training of her two sons by the example and admonitions of her daughter." ³ Ambrose himself told her later that she had learned her way of life "living in the country, with no virgin companion, instructed by no teacher," and traced it instead to an ancestor, the martyr Sotheris. ⁴ The encyclopedia says that in Rome she lived in her mother's house with another consecrated virgin. ³

The one event of her life told in detail is her consecration, and Ambrose tells it. Opening the third book of Concerning Virgins, he reminds her of the words of Pope Liberius, spoken "when on the Nativity of the Saviour in the Church of St. Peter you signified your profession of virginity by your change of attire," with many virgins standing around her. ⁴ "You, said he, my daughter, have desired a good espousal. You see how great a crowd has come together for the birthday of your Spouse, and none has gone away without food." ⁴

Kirsch dates it to Christmas Day, "probably in 353." ¹ The Roman Martyrology says that she received the veil of consecration from Pope Liberius in Saint Peter's "on the day of the Epiphany of the Lord" (translated here from the Italian). ² Emilia Flocchini, writing for santiebeati, explains the doubt: the year falls between 352 and 354, and it is not certain whether the Nativity was then kept at Rome on December 25 or, as in the East, on January 6. ⁹ She adds that one scholar, Raymond D'Izarny, doubts whether Marcellina received a veil at all, since Ambrose speaks only of a change of dress. ⁹

Liberius told her to love Christ, "for He is good," and Ambrose summarizes the counsels that followed: to use wine sparingly, to keep few visits, and to keep silence in church. ⁴ Then he turns to her own practice, which, he says, went beyond what the pope had asked. "You, multiplying nights and days, pass untold periods without food," he writes; "your drink is from the spring, your weeping and prayer combine, your sleep is on your book." ⁴ He asks her, "a veteran in virginity," to ease off, so that she may be kept "as teacher for a younger age," and to vary fasting with reading, work and prayer. ⁴

When Ambrose became bishop of Milan in 374, Kirsch writes, "he summoned his sister thither, and found in her a zealous assistant in fostering and extending the ascetic life among the maidens of Milan." ¹ The encyclopedia's article on Ambrose adds that when he gave his property away on becoming bishop, he made "provision for the support of his beloved sister." ³

In 377 he dedicated to her the three books Concerning Virgins. ¹⁵ The New Advent edition says he gathered his teaching into them "at the request of his sister." ⁵ The first book is headed simply "To Marcellina, His Sister," and in the third he answers a question she had put to him, about virgins who had taken their own lives rather than fall into the hands of persecutors. ⁴⁵ He addresses her throughout as "holy sister." ⁴

Their brother Satyrus, who had given up a prefecture to manage Ambrose's affairs, died in 378. ³ Ambrose's funeral oration speaks of Marcellina again and again. He was, Ambrose says, the one they took as judge "if at any time there was a discussion between me and my holy sister on any matter," and he refused to marry so that he would not be separated "from his brother and sister." ⁶ Ambrose says he himself may not die "lest I leave my sister." ⁶

He describes her mourning: "Prostrate on the ground, embracing her brother's tomb, wearied with toilsome walking, sad in spirit, day and night she renews her grief." ⁶ Though she knew the Scriptures better than those who came to console her, "she makes up for her desire of weeping by the constancy of her prayers, renewing the abundance of her tears then chiefly, when no one can interrupt her." ⁶

Three of Ambrose's letters to her survive, Rimoldi notes. ⁹ The first, written at Easter 385, opens: "Since in almost all your letters you enquire anxiously about the Church, you shall hear what is taking place." ⁷ It tells her of the court's demand for a basilica for Arian worship and of the people's resistance, and mentions that she had written of being "troubled by dreams." ⁷ The second announces the finding of the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius. ⁹

The third reports how Ambrose pressed the Emperor Theodosius to revoke an order that a bishop rebuild a synagogue which Christians had burned, refusing to go to the altar until the emperor promised. ⁸ Marcellina had written that she was still anxious about it, and he wrote to tell her that he had had his way. ⁸

Marcellina outlived her brother, who died in 397. ¹⁹ Kirsch says she "died in 398 or shortly afterwards"; Avvenire's introduction says 397, a few months after Ambrose; Antonio Rimoldi says about 400, during the episcopate of Saint Simplician. ¹⁹ She was buried in the crypt under the altar of the Ambrosian basilica and "honoured as a saint." ¹ In 1812 her remains were moved to a chapel built for her in the basilica, according to santiebeati, and each year the archbishop of Milan's Mass for the feast of the Presentation, on February 2, begins there. ⁹

In 1838 Luigi Biraghi, later beatified, founded with Marina Videmari the Sisters of Saint Marcellina, a congregation devoted to the education of girls, taking as its model her care for her younger brothers. ⁹

None of the sources used here names Saint Marcellina as the patron of anything, and this page does not supply a patronage. ¹²⁹ The congregation that bears her name has taken her for its model as a teacher of the young. ⁹

Saint Marcellina's feast is July 17. ¹² Kirsch says "her feast is celebrated on 17 July," and the Roman Martyrology commemorates her that day at Milan. ¹² Flocchini says that a metrical epitaph attributed to Simplician places her death in the middle of July. ⁹

She chose her life years before her brother was a bishop, and, by his account, without a teacher. ¹⁴ He wrote her the book, and asked her to fast less. ⁴

Her grief for Satyrus is not tidied up. Ambrose describes a woman prostrate at a tomb, weeping in her prayers when nobody could interrupt, and he does not tell her to stop. ⁶ "To weep in prayer is a sign of virtue," he writes. ⁶

Most of what reaches us of her is what her brother chose to tell her: of riots and basilicas, of martyrs found, and of an emperor. ⁷⁸⁹ She was the one he wrote to when he wanted somebody to know. ⁷