Women Who Guided Men

We do not mean the example of Deborah who guided the commander Barak in war (Judges 4), nor Rahab who guided the two men in Jericho (Joshua 2), but rather we mean here spiritual guides who directed saints in their spiritual lives.

Among these are:

1. Saint Macrina:
   Who guided her two brothers: Saint Basil the Great, and Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa. The latter wrote about her in a book describing her virtues and her guidance of the whole family. He used to call her his teacher. She was the one who led him to a life of consecration, and made him leave his work as a lawyer, with its fame and wealth, and place all his talents in the hand of God. Thus she was also a teacher to Basil the Great.
2. Saint Melania:
   She was the one who guided the teacher of virtue Saint Mar Evagrius, and led him in his early life to the path of repentance and to the path of monasticism, after he revealed to her his thoughts and his sins, and she was a spiritual mother to him.
3. Saint Sarah:
   It was mentioned in (The Paradise) how monks from Scetis used to seek guidance from Saint Sarah and reveal to her their sins. She said to them: “Truly, you are Scetians. For what virtues are in you, you hide; and what vices are not in you, you attribute to yourselves.”
4. Saint Demiana:
   She was the one who guided her father Marcus in El-Burlus and Zaafaran, when he denied the faith. She rebuked him, led him to repentance, to confess the name of Christ, and also to martyrdom. Without her, her father would have perished.

An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in Al-Keraza Magazine – Eighth Year (Issue Thirty), 29-7-1977.

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