Emmelia of Caesarea

{{Short description|Wife of Basil the Elder}}

{{redirect|Emelia|people with the given name|Emilia (given name)|the historical region of Italy|Emilia (region)}}

{{Infobox saint

|image = St. Emmelia Met DP890979.jpg

|honorific_prefix=Saint

|name=Emmelia of Caesarea

|attributes=Mother of Saints

|birth_place=Unknown

|death_date=30 May 375

|death_place=Caesarea in Cappadocia
(modern-day Kayseri, Turkey)

|titles=

|feast_day=30 May (Western Church, Some Eastern Churches)
8 May (Some Eastern Churches)
1 January (Russian Orthodox)

|venerated_in=Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church

|canonized_date=Pre-congregation

|patronage= Mothers

}}

Emmelia of Caesarea (Greek: Ἐμμέλεια) was born in the late third to early fourth century, a period in time when Christianity was becoming more widespread, posing a challenge to the Roman government and its pagan rule.{{cite book|last= Brown |first= Peter |author-link= Peter Brown (historian) |title= The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity |publisher= Columbia University Press |edition= Twentieth-anniversary |series= Columbia Classics in Religion |date= 2008-07-03 |orig-year= 1988 |isbn= 978-0231144070 }}

She was the wife of Basil the Elder and bore nine or ten children, including Basil of Caesarea (born circa 330{{cite book|title= Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World]|year=1999|publisher= Harvard University Press |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=c788wWR_bLwC&pg=PP1 |isbn= 978-0-67451-173-6 |editor1-last= Bowersock |editor1-first= Glen Warren |editor1-link= Glen Bowersock |editor2-last= Brown |editor2-first= Peter |editor2-link= Peter Brown (historian) |editor3-last= Grabar |editor3-first= Oleg |editor3-link= Oleg Grabar | page=336}}), Macrina the Younger, Peter of Sebaste, Gregory of Nyssa, and Naucratius.

Emmelia—also known as Emilia or Emily—is venerated as a saint in both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church{{cite web|author= Pope Benedict XIV|author-link= Pope Benedict XIV|title= Martyrologium Romanum - 30 May |year= 1749 |language= Latin |accessdate= 2016-07-16 |url= http://www.liturgialatina.org/martyrologium/15.htm |quote= Caesareae, in Cappadocia, sanctorum Basilii et Emmeliae uxoris, qui fuerunt parentes beatorum Basilii Magni et Gregorii Nysseni ac Petri Sebastensis Episcoporum, atque Macrinae Virginis. Hi vero sancti conjuges, tempore Galerii Maximiani, extorres facti, Ponticas solitudines incoluere; ef post persecutionem, filiis suarum relictis virtutum heredibus, in pace quieverunt. [At Caesarea in Cappadocia, the holy Basil and Emmelia his wife, who were the parents of the blessed Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Peter, Bishop of Sebaste, and Macrina, virgin. These holy spouses, in the time of Galerius Maximian, banished, and have the deserts of Pontus; after the persecution, leaving their children heirs of their virtues, died in peace.]}} and is said to have died on 30 May 375.{{cite book |last= Velimirovic |first= Nikolai |author-link= Nikolaj Velimirović |title= Prologue for May 8 [in Julian calendar] |series= The Prologue from Ohrid: Lives of Saints, Hymns, Reflections and Homilies for Every Day of the Year (Volume 1: January to June) |date= 2002 |volume= 1 |publisher= Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Western America |language= English |isbn= 9780971950504 |url= http://98.131.104.126/prolog/May8.htm |accessdate= 2016-07-15 |archive-date= 2016-10-13 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161013173336/http://98.131.104.126/prolog/May8.htm |url-status= dead }} However, she is not the only woman in her family to be venerated as a saint. Both her mother-in-law, Macrina the Elder, and her daughter Macrina the Younger are recognized as saints in the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. Her daughter Theosebia the Deaconess is honoured as a saint in Eastern Orthodoxy but only as a blessed in the Catholic Church.

Emmelia spent much of her later years living with her eldest daughter, Macrina the Younger. Macrina the Younger had a profound impact on her mother. With her husband no longer around, Emmelia and her daughter lived a life dedicated to Christianity, surrounded by servants whom they treated as equals, at Macrina the Younger's insistence. Their ascetic way of life attracted a following of women which created a convent-like atmosphere, where one was considered rich if she lived a pure and devout Christian life and disregarded the materialistic lure of earthly pleasures and possessions.Gregory of Nyssa: The Life of Macrina, trans. by W.K. Lowther Clarke, (London: SPCK, 1916)