[2] As the eldest in her family, she made it a point to pass to her younger brothers the "desire not to express their virtue, but to become truly virtuous."

She devoted herself to the practice of piety and asceticism, and received the veil of consecrated virginity from Pope Liberius.

According to tradition, she turned the family home into a church dedicated in Mary, which later became Sant'Ambrogio della Massima.

Ambrose dedicated his work on virginity, written in 377, Libri III de virginibus ad Marcellinam to her.

[3] In his discourse on the death of his brother Satyrus, Ambrose speaks of the warm family affection which bound the three together, and of his sister's grief.