Saint Macarius

(Feast day: January 19)

Saint Macarius was born in Alexandria around the year 305, to poor pagan parents. He worked as a baker.

He came to know the Christian faith through wandering monks who preached Christ. He spent three years among the catechumens, then received Baptism and began to live a life of asceticism and mortification.

He later settled in the desert, where he practised strict fasting and detachment. He ate only once a week and slept only two hours each night.

The Bishop of Alexandria summoned him and ordained him a priest at the age of forty. Rather than taking pride in this, Macarius grew even more in virtue, holiness and his desire for a deeper life in the desert.

Many became his disciples. He spent his nights in prayer and brought many heretics back to the true faith.

Saint Macarius came to understand that the true meaning of the solitary life is not simply separation from other people, but a sincere desire for union with God, the Lover of mankind. The true solitary may withdraw from others physically, yet in practice he loves every person.

The Arian Emperor Valens exiled him to a pagan island. Through Saint Macarius, the inhabitants came to believe in Christ, and the emperor eventually allowed him to return to his hermitage.

Saint Macarius worked many miracles and healings, and was said to have the power to drive out demons with a simple sign of the Cross.

Once, a hyena came to him and began tugging at his garment. He followed it to its den, where it brought out three deformed cubs. Amazed by the animal’s intelligence, Macarius prayed over them and laid his hands upon them, and they were healed.

The hyena later returned carrying a hide in its mouth and offered it to him. Saint Macarius used it as his bed until his death.

Another miracle is said to have taken place when rain ceased to fall in Alexandria. The patriarch sent for Macarius, and as soon as he arrived, rain began to pour down. It continued so heavily that the people asked him to pray for it to stop. He prayed to the Lord, and the rain ceased.

Some of his best-known sayings

“Since the day I became a monk, I have never eaten my fill of bread or slept my fill. None of the courageous fathers fell ill, because they disciplined their bodies within due measure.”

“Guard your ears from gossip, and your hearts will remain pure; flee from everything that defiles the heart.”

“Guard your tongues from speaking evil of your brothers, for whoever speaks evil of his brother angers God who dwells in him. Whatever a person does to his neighbour, he does to God.”

Saint Macarius lived for about ninety years, sixty of them in ascetic life, and fell asleep in the Lord around the year 395.

Prepared by Rita, of the Sawt el Rab team