⛪ Saint of the Day : July 17
Saint Marcellina was born in Rome about 327. She was the older sister of Saint Ambrose of Milan and Saint Satyrus.
She lived Trier , where her father resided as prefect of Gaul. After her father’s death she went to Rome. Once there Marcellina was entrusted by her pious mother with the education of her brothers, whom she inspired by word and example to thirst for Christian virtue.
She received the veil of a consecrated virgin from the hands of Pope Liberius on Christmas Day, 353, in Saint Peter's Basilica. During his homily on that occasion he exhorted her to embrace the evangelical virtues and to behave in church with the utmost respect. The advice, which the pope addressed to her on this occasion, has been preserved by St. Ambrose (De virginibus III), which emphasized especially the obligations of christian virgins to preserve virginal purity.
After Ambrose became Bishop of Milan (374), Marcellina and her brother Satyrus went to live with him in Milan. She lived a life of great austerity, which St. Ambrose tried to persuade her to mitigate.
Ambrose fell sick and died april 4,397; he was 57; Marcellina survived her brother and died in 398 or shortly afterwards.
She also was buried in the crypt under the altar of the Ambrosian Basilica, and was honoured as a saint. Her feast is celebrated on 17 July.
