 St. Macarius
Name: St. Macarius
Date: 2 January
Saint Macarius when a youth left his fruit-stall at Alexandria to join the great Saint Anthony; thatpatriarch, advised by a miracle of his disciple’s sanctity, named him the heir to his virtues. For atime he remained in the Thebaid with his fellow hermits, but later he went to the desert of Scete.He had a cell there and others in two distinct places, but his principal dwelling place was thedesert of the Cells. All of these cells were for him a source of mortification, being withoutwindow, or too short for him to lie down. The life of this solitary was one long conflict with himself and with the demons. “I am tormentingmy tormentor,” he replied to a hermit who met him in the heat of the day, bent double with abasket of sand. “Whenever I am slothful and idle, I am pestered by desires for distant travel.”When he was quite worn out he returned to his cell. Since sleep at times overpowered him, hekept watch standing for twenty days and nights; then, being about to faint, he entered his cell andslept, but thereafter slept only at will. When for six months the demons tormented him with temptations, he would go to a marsh andremain naked in the water until his body was covered with noxious insect bites and boils, and hewas recognized only by his voice. Once, when being thirsty he received a present of grapes, hepassed them untouched to a hermit who was toiling in the heat. This one gave them to a third,who handed them to a fourth; in this way the grapes went the round of the desert and finallyreturned to Macarius, who thanked God for his brethren’s self-denial. Macarius saw demons assailing the hermits at prayer. They put their fingers into the mouths ofsome and made them yawn. They closed the eyes of others, and walked upon them with contemptwhen they fell asleep. They placed vain and sensual images before many of the brethren, and thenmocked those who were captivated by them. None vanquished the devils effectively save thosewho by constant vigilance repelled them at once. He called some of the solitaries to come to himand asked them if they had not thought about buildings, journeys or other such things. Theyacknowledged their fault, seeing he had perceived the vain thoughts which distract souls duringprayer, caused by the illusion of the devils, and which the vigilant reject as foreign to theirpurpose. After being many years Superior, Macarius, desiring humiliation and spiritual progress, fled indisguise to Saint Pachomius to begin religious life over again as his novice. Soon the brethrenwere going to their Superior to tell them of the extraordinary mortifications of the newcomer.Saint Pachomius prayed, and then, instructed by a vision, addressed Macarius by his name, sayinghe had long wanted to know him. And he thanked him for having given such excellent examplesto his religious. Then he bade him return to his former brethren in religion, who loved him as theirfather, to pray for Pachomius’ monks as well. At the age of seventy-three, Saint Macarius was driven into exile and brutally outraged by Arianheretics. He died in the year 394. |
