Saint Macarius the Great of Egypt was born around 331 in the village
of Ptinapor in Egypt. At the wish of his parents he entered into
marriage, but was soon widowed. After he buried his wife, Macarius told
himself, “Take heed, Macarius, and have care for your soul. It is
fitting that you forsake worldly life.”
The Lord rewarded the
saint with a long life, but from that time the memory of death was
constantly with him, impelling him to ascetic deeds of prayer and
penitence. He began to visit the church of God more frequently and to be
more deeply absorbed in Holy Scripture, but he did not leave his aged
parents, thus fulfilling the commandment to honor one’s parents.
Until
his parents died, St Macarius used his remaining substance to help them
and he began to pray fervently that the Lord might show him a guide on
the way to salvation. The Lord sent him an experienced Elder, who lived
in the desert not far from the village. The Elder accepted the youth
with love, guided him in the spiritual science of watchfulness, fasting
and prayer, and taught him the handicraft of weaving baskets. After
building a separate cell not far from his own, the Elder settled his
disciple in it.
The local bishop arrived one day at Ptinapor and,
knowing of the saint’s virtuous life, ordained him against his will. St
Macarius was overwhelmed by this disturbance of his silence, and so he
went secretly to another place. The Enemy of our salvation began a
tenacious struggle with the ascetic, trying to terrify him, shaking his
cell and suggesting sinful thoughts. St Macarius repelled the attacks of
the devil, defending himself with prayer and the Sign of the Cross.
Evil
people slandered the saint, accusing him of seducing a woman from a
nearby village. They dragged him out of his cell and jeered at him. St
Macarius endured the temptation with great humility. Without a murmur,
he sent the money that he got for his baskets for the support of the
pregnant woman.
The innocence of St Macarius was manifested when
the woman, who suffered torment for many days, was not able to give
birth. She confessed that she had slandered the hermit, and revealed the
name of the real father. When her parents found out the truth, they
were astonished and intended to go to the saint to ask forgiveness.
Though St Macarius willingly accepted dishonor, he shunned the praise of
men. He fled from that place by night and settled on Mt. Nitria in the
Pharan desert.
Thus human wickedness contributed to the
prospering of the righteous. Having dwelt in the desert for three years,
he went to St Anthony the Great, the Father of Egyptian monasticism,
for he had heard that he was still alive in the world, and he longed to
see him. Abba Anthony received him with love, and Macarius became his
devoted disciple and follower. St Macarius lived with him for a long
time and then, on the advice of the saintly abba, he went off to the
Skete monastery (in the northwest part of Egypt). He so shone forth in
asceticism that he came to be called “a young Elder,” because he had
distinguished himself as an experienced and mature monk, even though he
was not quite thirty years old.
St Macarius survived many demonic
attacks against him. Once, he was carrying palm branches for weaving
baskets, and a devil met him on the way and wanted to strike him with a
sickle, but he was not able to do this. He said, “Macarius, I suffer
great anguish from you because I am unable to vanquish you. I do
everything that you do. You fast, and I eat nothing at all. You keep
vigil, and I never sleep. You surpass me only in one thing: humility.”
When
the saint reached the age of forty, he was ordained to the priesthood
and made the head of the monks living in the desert of Skete. During
these years, St Macarius often visited with St Anthony the Great,
receiving guidance from him in spiritual conversations. Abba Macarius
was deemed worthy to be present at the death of St Anthony and he
received his staff. He also received a double portion of the Anthony’s
spiritual power, just as the prophet Elisha once received a double
portion of the grace of the prophet Elias, along with the mantle that he
dropped from the fiery chariot.
St Macarius worked many
healings. People thronged to him from various places for help and for
advice, asking his holy prayers. All this unsettled the quietude of the
saint. He therefore dug out a deep cave under his cell, and hid there
for prayer and meditation.
St Macarius attained such boldness
before God that, through his prayers, the Lord raised the dead. Despite
attaining such heights of holiness, he continued to preserve his unusual
humility. One time the holy abba caught a thief loadng his things on a
donkey standing near the cell. Without revealing that he was the owner
of these things, the monk began to help tie up the load. Having removed
himself from the world, the monk told himself, “We bring nothing at all
into this world; clearly, it is not possible to take anything out from
it. Blessed be the Lord for all things!”
Once, St Macarius was
walking and saw a skull lying upon the ground. He asked, “Who are you?”
The skull answered, “I was a chief priest of the pagans. When you, Abba,
pray for those in hell, we receive some mitigation.”
The monk
asked, “What are these torments?” “We are sitting in a great fire,”
replied the skull, “and we do not see one another. When you pray, we
begin to see each other somewhat, and this affords us some comfort.”
Having heard such words, the saint began to weep and asked, “Are there
still more fiercesome torments?” The skull answered, “Down below us are
those who knew the Name of God, but spurned Him and did not keep His
commandments. They endure even more grievous torments.”
Once,
while he was praying, St Macarius heard a voice: “Macarius, you have not
yet attained such perfection in virtue as two women who live in the
city.” The humble ascetic went to the city, found the house where the
women lived, and knocked. The women received him with joy, and he said,
“I have come from the desert seeking you in order to learn of your good
deeds. Tell me about them, and conceal nothing.”
The women
answered with surprise, “We live with our husbands, and we have not such
virtues.” But the saint continued to insist, and the women then told
him, “We married two brothers. After living together in one house for
fifteen years, we have not uttered a single malicious nor shameful word,
and we never quarrel among ourselves. We asked our husbands to allow us
to enter a women’s monastery, but they would not agree. We vowed not to
utter a single worldly word until our death.”
St Macarius
glorified God and said, “In truth, the Lord seeks neither virgins nor
married women, and neither monks nor laymen, but values a person’s free
intent, accepting it as the deed itself. He grants to everyone’s free
will the grace of the Holy Spirit, which operates in an individual and
directs the life of all who yearn to be saved.”
During the years
of the reign of the Arian emperor Valens (364-378), St Macarius the
Great and St Macarius of Alexandria was subjected to persecution by the
followers of the Arian bishop Lucius. They seized both Elders and put
them on a ship, sending them to an island where only pagans lived. By
the prayers of the saints, the daughter of a pagan priest was delivered
from an evil spirit. After this, the pagan priest and all the
inhabitants of the island were baptized. When he heard what had
happened, the Arian bishop feared an uprising and permitted the Elders
to return to their monasteries.
The meekness and humility of the
monk transformed human souls. “A harmful word,” said Abba Macarius,
“makes good things bad, but a good word makes bad things good.” When the
monks asked him how to pray properly, he answered, “Prayer does not
require many words. It is needful to say only, “Lord, as Thou wilt and
as Thou knowest, have mercy on me.” If an enemy should fall upon you,
you need only say, “Lord, have mercy!” The Lord knows that which is
useful for us, and grants us mercy.”
When the brethren asked how a
monk ought to comport himself, the saint replied, “Forgive me, I am not
yet a monk, but I have seen monks. I asked them what I must do to be a
monk. They answered, ‘If a man does not withdraw himself from everything
which is in the world, it is not possible to be a monk.’ Then I said,
‘I am weak and cannot be as you are.’ The monks responded, ‘If you
cannot renounce the world as we have, then go to your cell and weep for
your sins.’”
St Macarius gave advice to a young man who wished to
become a monk: “Flee from people and you shall be saved.” That one
asked: “What does it mean to flee from people?” The monk answered: “Sit
in your cell and repent of your sins.”
St Macarius sent him to a
cemetery to rebuke and then to praise the dead. Then he asked him what
they said to him. The young man replied, “They were silent to both
praise and reproach.” “If you wish to be saved, be as one dead. Do not
become angry when insulted, nor puffed up when praised.” And further:
“If slander is like praise for you, poverty like riches, insufficiency
like abundance, then you shall not perish.”
The prayer of St
Macarius saved many in perilous circumstances of life, and preserved
them from harm and temptation. His benevolence was so great that they
said of him: “Just as God sees the whole world, but does not chastize
sinners, so also does Abba Macarius cover his neighbor’s weaknesses,
which he seemed to see without seeing, and heard without hearing.”
The
monk lived until the age of ninety. Shortly before his death, Sts
Anthony and Pachomius appeared to him, bringing the joyful message of
his departure to eternal life in nine days. After instructing his
disciples to preserve the monastic Rule and the traditions of the
Fathers, he blessed them and began to prepare for death. St Macarius
departed to the Lord saying, “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my
spirit.”
Abba Macarius spent sixty years in the wilderness, being
dead to the world. He spent most of his time in conversation with God,
often in a state of spiritual rapture. But he never ceased to weep, to
repent and to work. The saint’s profound theological writings are based
on his own personal experience. Fifty Spiritual Homilies and seven
Ascetic Treatises survive as the precious legacy of his spiritual
wisdom. Several prayers composed by St Macarius the Great are still used
by the Church in the Prayers Before Sleep and also in the Morning
Prayers.
Man’s highest goal and purpose, the union of the soul
with God, is a primary principle in the works of St Macarius. Describing
the methods for attaining mystical communion, the saint relies upon the
experience of the great teachers of Egyptian monasticism and on his own
experience. The way to God and the experience of the holy ascetics of
union with God is revealed to each believer’s heart.
Earthly
life, according to St Macarius, has only a relative significance: to
prepare the soul, to make it capable of perceiving the heavenly Kingdom,
and to establish in the soul an affinity with the heavenly homeland.
“For
those truly believing in Christ, it is necessary to change and
transform the soul from its present degraded nature into another, divine
nature, and to be fashioned anew by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
This
is possible, if we truly believe and we truly love God and have
observed all His holy commandments. If one betrothed to Christ at
Baptism does not seek and receive the divine light of the Holy Spirit in
the present life, “then when he departs from the body, he is separated
into the regions of darkness on the left side. He does not enter into
the Kingdom of Heaven, but has his end in hell with the devil and his
angels” (Homily 30:6).
In the teaching of St Macarius, the inner
action of the Christian determines the extent of his perception of
divine truth and love. Each of us acquires salvation through grace and
the divine gift of the Holy Spirit, but to attain a perfect measure of
virtue, which is necessary for the soul’s assimilation of this divine
gift, is possible only “by faith and by love with the strengthening of
free will.” Thus, the Christian inherits eternal life “as much by grace,
as by truth.”
Salvation is a divine-human action, and we attain
complete spiritual success “not only by divine power and grace, but also
by the accomplishing of the proper labors.” On the other hand, it is
not just within “the measure of freedom and purity” that we arrive at
the proper solicitude, it is not without “the cooperation of the hand of
God above.” The participation of man determines the actual condition of
his soul, thus inclining him to good or evil. “If a soul still in the
world does not possess in itself the sanctity of the Spirit for great
faith and for prayer, and does not strive for the oneness of divine
communion, then it is unfit for the heavenly kingdom.”
The
miracles and visions of Blessed Macarius are recorded in a book by the
presbyter Rufinus, and his Life was compiled by St Serapion, bishop of
Tmuntis (Lower Egypt), one of the renowned workers of the Church in the
fourth century. His holy relics are in the city of Amalfi, Italy.
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