St. Macrina was revered in her own time for many reasons. She taught her brothers the virtues and wisdom that helped them, in their turn to become saints, she talked her mother into freeing her slaves and servants allowing them to enter the monastery as her sisters, and she worked hard always to be a source of spiritual support to everyone around her. She trusted in Christ so deeply that this was her final prayer:
“Lord, you have released us from the fear of death. The end of our life here you have made the beginning of true life. For a short while you will let our bodies rest in sleep, and then with the last trumpet you will wake them from their sleep. You give this earth of ours, which you shaped with your own hands, to the Earth to keep for you; and you will take it back again. And from a mortal, formless lump you will transform it into a thing of immortal beauty. To free us from sin and from the curse laid upon us, you took both sin and the curse upon yourself. You crushed the head of the dragon that had seized humans by the throat and thrust it into the gulf prepared for the disobedient. When you shattered the gates of hell and trampled the devil, death’s lord, beneath your feet, you cleared the way for our resurrection. To us who fear you, you gave a sign, the sign of your Holy Cross, to destroy the enemy and infuse new vigor into our lives.
"Eternal God, you have been my refuge since I left my mother’s womb; I love you with all my inmost strength; I have devoted myself, body and soul, to you from my childhood onwards. Set now an angel of light beside me and tell him to take my hand and lead me to the resting place where there is water for refreshment, beside the dwellings of the holy Mothers and Fathers. You snapped the flaming sword you in two; you restored to paradise the person who hung upon a cross next to you and implored your great mercy. Remember me, too, now that you are back in your Kingdom, since I also have hung upon the Cross with you and the nails have pierced my flesh; for I have always feared your judgment.
"May the dread gulf not divide me from your elect nor the Slanderer stand in my way; may your eyes not rest on my sins. If out of the weakness of human nature I have fallen and sinned in word or deed or thought, forgive me; for you have power to forgive sins on Earth. When I am divested of my body, may I stand before you with my soul unspotted; receive it, blameless and faultless, with your own hands. Amen.”