Family and Household
Marcellina was the eldest of three children of a distinguished Roman Christian family; her father, Ambrosius, served as praetorian prefect of Gaul, and the family had possible connections to the prominent Aurelii Symmachi. Her younger brothers were Ambrose, the future Bishop of Milan, and Satyrus. She was approximately ten years older than Ambrose.
After their father's death, the family returned to Rome, where Marcellina assumed responsibility for the upbringing of her younger brothers, instilling in them, as recorded, the desire not merely to express virtue but to become truly virtuous. Their mother was greatly assisted in the religious training of her two sons by the example and admonitions of her daughter. Like her brothers Ambrose and Satyrus, Marcellina came to be venerated as a saint after her death.
Consecrated Life
Marcellina made a profession of virginity sometime between 352 and 355, receiving the virginal veil directly from Pope Liberius, a distinction that marked a significant honor in the early Church. She lived as a consecrated virgin in her mother's household alongside another devoted religious woman.
Her manner of life was one of strict abstinence, fasting, and prayer. Ambrose is recorded as occasionally encouraging her to moderate its severity. Through her example Ambrose imbibed the enthusiastic love of virginity that became one of his distinguishing traits.
Legacy
Marcellina's chief legacy lies in her influence upon Ambrose of Milan and in the treatise he addressed to her. In 377 Ambrose dedicated to his sister the three-volume Libri III de virginibus ad Marcellinam, his work on virginity; Jerome praised it as the most eloquent and exhaustive treatment of the theme among the Christian writers of that age.
She died in 398, a year after Ambrose, and was buried in the crypt of the Ambrosian Basilica in Milan, near her brother. Her feast is kept on July 17.
