| Abstract | Abstract In the Life of Macrina, written shortly after his sister's death in 380, Gregory of Nyssa establishes a theological context for hagiographical composition in late fourth-century liturgical piety and practice. Situating acts of storytelling in the struggle to manage grief, Gregory uses remembering (anamne\sis) as a technology for rendering the absent present. Within the text, Macrina herself stresses that the goal of biography is "thanksgiving to God," modeling the proper method of Christian biographical narrative. Thus Gregory's literary production has analogues in evening prayer and the anaphora of the divine liturgy. Reflecting on the relationship between spoken and written words, and between logos and flesh, the Life of Macrina posits a complex relationship between body and text, in which Gregory's writing figures as sacrificial offering.
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