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Macarius of Egypt

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Saint Macarius the Great
Macarius of Egypt
Ecclesial status Saint
Born About 300, Egypt
Died About 390, Scetis
State of life Priest, hermit, and monastic elder
Monastic center Scetis, now Wadi al-Natrun
Commemoration Roman Martyrology, 19 January

Macarius of Egypt was a fourth-century priest, hermit, spiritual father, and saint associated with the foundation of monastic life at Scetis in the Egyptian desert. He is commonly called Macarius the Great, the Egyptian, or the Elder to distinguish him from Macarius of Alexandria.[1]

Devotional status: Approved devotion

Overview

Macarius of Egypt[2] (c. 300 AD – 391 AD) was an Egyptian Christian monk and grazer hermit. He is also known as Macarius the Elder or Macarius the Great.[3][4]

The desert of Scetis

Macarius was born in Egypt about the beginning of the fourth century and entered ascetic life as a young adult. Ancient sources associate him with Saint Anthony the Great and place him at Scetis, the remote valley now called Wadi al-Natrun, by about the 330s. He became a priest and spiritual father within a settlement of hermits whose cells were dispersed but whose members gathered for common worship and received guidance from experienced elders. Calling him founder of Scetis describes his formative fatherhood; it should not be mistaken for establishing a centralized order with later Western juridical structures.

A semi-eremitical community

The monks of Scetis combined solitude, manual work, fasting, prayer, and periodic common liturgy. They were held together by mutual help and the authority of elders recognized as models of discernment rather than by one detailed written rule. Macarius's title abbot in the Roman Martyrology expresses this spiritual governance, although the office should not be projected backward in every later canonical detail. The enduring monasteries of Wadi al-Natrun grew from this Egyptian pattern and remain living centers of Coptic Christian monasticism.

Spiritual father and desert witness

Palladius, the History of the Monks in Egypt, and collections of sayings portray Macarius as mature beyond his years, severe toward his own faults, merciful toward others, discerning in spiritual combat, and resistant to praise. Stories describe healings, encounters with demons, extraordinary prayer, and acts of humility. Catholic tradition receives the reality of grace and spiritual warfare while reading individual desert narratives according to genre and evidence. The fathers intended to form disciples in repentance and charity, not to provide clinical transcripts or a catalogue of techniques for pursuing marvels.[5]

Discernment, mercy, and self-knowledge

Sayings attributed to Abba Macarius repeatedly turn accusation inward and charity outward. He counsels concealment of a brother's sin, gentleness toward the tempted, remembrance of death, and prayer that joins the mind to God. Some sayings may have circulated before attribution and cannot all be dated securely to one speaker. Their coherent reception nevertheless explains his authority within the desert tradition. His sanctity is not the extremity of isolated feats but a life purified for spiritual fatherhood, ecclesial prayer, and compassion.

Historical limits and disputed writings

Macarius the Egyptian must be distinguished from his younger contemporary Macarius of Alexandria, another famous ascetic of Nitria and Kellia. Later writers sometimes transferred episodes between them. The fifty Spiritual Homilies transmitted under the name Macarius are now generally treated as pseudonymous works by an unknown Syriac or Mesopotamian author, conventionally called Pseudo-Macarius. They remain important spiritual texts, but their theological content should not be cited as direct evidence for the Egyptian saint's biography or assumed to preserve his exact words.[6]

Persecution, exile, and chronology

Ecclesiastical histories report that Arian authorities exiled prominent Egyptian monks during the reign of Valens, and tradition includes Macarius among them. Chronologies vary in secondary accounts, as do details concerning his early marriage, ordination, and journeys to Anthony. The most defensible outline places his birth about 300, arrival at Scetis around 330, long spiritual fatherhood there, and death about 390. Precision beyond what the early sources bear should be identified as later tradition rather than silently converted into fact.[7]

Cult and calendar

Macarius is venerated across the Catholic, Coptic Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox traditions. His relics and name are especially associated with the Monastery of Saint Macarius in Wadi al-Natrun. The 2004 Roman Martyrology commemorates Macarius, priest and abbot of the monastery of Scetis, on 19 January; older Western calendars and reference works sometimes give 15 January, while Byzantine calendars also commonly keep 19 January. The current Martyrology assigns this Macarius to 19 January, distinct from Macarius of Alexandria's separate commemoration.[8][9]

A father shared across ancient Churches

Catholics honor Macarius as a real saint living in Christ and interceding for monastics, priests, penitents, and all engaged in spiritual combat. His shared cult witnesses to a sanctity received before later ecclesial divisions. Respect for that inheritance requires naming its Coptic home rather than appropriating it as a generic Western devotion. His life teaches that solitude is fruitful when joined to the Church's worship, that asceticism serves charity, and that true authority grows from humility and discernment rather than institutional ambition.

Life

Macarius was born in Lower Egypt. A late tradition places his birthplace in the village of Shabsheer (Shanshour), Roman Egypt around 300 AD. He tended cattle as a boy. As a young man, with a strong call to solitude, he constructed near his home a small cell where he prayed continually and wove mats.[10] At some point before his pursuit of asceticism, Macarius made his living smuggling saltpeter in the vicinity of Nitria, a vocation which taught him how to survive in and travel across the wastes in that area.[11]

Macarius is known for his wisdom. His friends and close kin used to call him Paidarion Geron (Ancient Greek: Παιδάριον Γέρων, which when compounded as Paidiogeron[12] led to Coptic: Ⲡⲓⲇⲁⲣ Ⲓⲟⲩⲅⲉⲣⲟⲛ, Pidar Yougiron) which meant the "old young man", i.e. "the young man with the elders' wisdom."[13]

At the wish of his parents Macarius entered into marriage, but was soon widowed.[14] Shortly after, his parents died as well. Macarius subsequently distributed all his money among the poor and needy. He found a teacher in an experienced Elder, who lived in the desert not far from the village. The Elder accepted the youth, guided him in the spiritual science of watchfulness, fasting and prayer, and taught him the handicraft of weaving baskets.[14]

A while later, a pregnant woman accused him of having defiled her. Macarius did not attempt to defend himself, and accepted the accusation in silence. However, when the woman's delivery drew near, her labor became exceedingly difficult. She did not manage to give birth until she confessed Macarius's innocence. A multitude of people then came asking for his forgiveness, but he fled to the Nitrian Desert to escape all mundane glory.

As a hermit, Macarius spent seven years living on only pulse and raw herbs.[15] He spent the following three years consuming four or five ounces of bread a day and only one vessel of oil a year.[15] While at the desert, he visited Anthony the Great and learned from him the laws and rules of monasticism. When he returned to the Scetic Desert at the age of forty, he became a priest.[16] The fame of his sanctity drew many followers. The community, which took up its residence in the desert, was of the semi-eremitical type. The monks were not bound by any fixed rule; their cells were close together, and they met for Divine worship only on Saturdays or Sundays. He presided over this monastic community for the rest of his life.

For a brief period of time, Macarius was banished to an island in the Nile by the Emperor Valens, along with Macarius of Alexandria, during a dispute over the doctrine of the Nicene Creed. Both men were victims of religious persecution by the followers of then Bishop Lucius of Alexandria. During their time on the island, the daughter of a pagan priest had become ill. The people of the island believed that she was possessed by an evil spirit. Both saints prayed over the daughter, which in turn had saved her. The pagan people of the island were so impressed and grateful that they stopped their worship of the pagan gods and built a church. When word of this got back to the Emperor Valens and Bishop Lucius of Alexandria, they quickly allowed both men to return home. At their return on 13 Paremhat, they were met by a multitude of monks of the Nitrian Desert, numbered fifty thousand, among whom were Pishoy and John the Dwarf.

Death and relics

Macarius died in the year 391. After his death, the natives of his village of Shabsheer stole the body and built a great church for him in their village. Pope Michael V of Alexandria brought the relics of Saint Macarius back to the Nitrian Desert on 19 Mesori. Today, the body of Macarius is found in his monastery, the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great in Scetes, Egypt.

Legacy

Macarius is a saint in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches.

In the Methodist Churches, Macarius is regarded highly for writing on the topic of entire sanctification.[17]

Macarius of Egypt founded a monastery that bears his name, the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great,[13] which has been continuously inhabited by monks since its foundation in the fourth century. St. Macarius’ face used to be enlightened with grace in an amazing way to the extent that many fathers testified that his face used to glow in the dark; and thus appeared his name as “the glowing lantern”. This description was transferred to his monastery, and thus it was called “the glowing lantern of the wilderness” or “the glowing monastery”, which meant the place of high wisdom and constant prayer.[13] Today it belongs to the Coptic Orthodox Church.

The entirety of the Nitrian Desert is sometimes called the Desert of Macarius, for he was the pioneer monk in the region. The ruins of numerous monasteries in this region support the local tradition that the cloisters of Macarius were equal in number to the days of the year.

Macarius the Great, one of the Egyptian desert recluses and a disciple of Anthony the Great, is depicted on the right edge of the Triumph of Death fresco in Pisa. A group of leisurely aristocrats and their animals occupy the central part of the fresco. These rich young men and women riding horses, surrounded by their decorative hunting dogs have gone on a pleasant journey. Suddenly, their path, somewhere deep in the woods, is barred by three open sarcophagi with bodies in different degrees of decomposition. Everybody in the scene, including the men, women and even the animals are horrified by this terrible and palpable presence of death. The unsupportable stench hits their noses. The abhorrent scene dismays them. Only Macarius the Great, made wise and powerful by his faith, stands above them all. The mystic teaches the youngsters a lesson about life and death by reading from the scroll. The Florentine sculptor Benvenuto Cellini was inspired by this depiction of Macarius in his painted portrait.

See also

References

  1. Back to citation Pope Shenouda III archive: Saint Macarius the Great — Official Coptic patriarchal archive preserving the Coptic Church's account of Macarius as father of Scetis, disciple within the Antonian tradition, and continuing monastic intercessor.
  2. Back to citation Ancient Greek: Ὅσιος Μακάριος ὁ Αἰγύπτιος, Osios Makarios o Egyptios; Coptic: ⲁⲃⲃⲁ ⲙⲁⲕⲁⲣⲓ.
  3. Back to citation "Bonus Episode: Macarius and the Mare". The Dark Ages Podcast. 2024-02-02. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
  4. Back to citation "Saint Macarius of Egypt". FIND THE SAINT. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
  5. Back to citation Palladius, Lausiac History — Early monastic source containing the chapter on Macarius of Egypt and supplying ancient evidence for his ascetic reputation, practices, humility, and place in the desert tradition.
  6. Back to citation Catholic Encyclopedia: Macarius — Catholic historical treatment distinguishing the Egyptian and Alexandrian saints and summarizing Scetis, priesthood, monastic settlement, death, disputed homilies, and differing calendar dates.
  7. Back to citation New Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Macarius — Modern Catholic scholarly overview identifying the principal early sources, settlement at Scetis, spiritual authority, cult, and critical distinction between the saint and pseudonymous writings.
  8. Back to citation Coptic Encyclopedia: Macarius the Egyptian — Modern scholarly Coptic reference describing the fourth-century anchorite of Scetis, the transmission of his cult, the monastery bearing his name, and the history of his relics.
  9. Back to citation Roman Martyrology 2004 index, month 1 — The current index assigns Macarius, priest and abbot of Scetis, to 19 January and distinguishes him from other saints of the same name. The linked English index is used for the assigned date and identity only; the official Martyrology remains the governing liturgical book.
  10. Back to citation "St. Macarius".
  11. Back to citation Harmless, William. Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism, p. 174, (Oxford University Press, 2004)
  12. Back to citation "Μνήμη τοῦ ὁσίου πατρός ἠμῶν Μακαρίου τοῦ Αἰγυπτίου τοῦ ἀναχωρητοῦ" [Our father Makarios of Egypt the Anchorite, of blessed memory]. Apostoliki Diakonia: Eorlogio (in Greek). Apostoliki Diakonia (Apostolic Auxiliary) of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  13. Back to citation occurrence 13.0 Back to citation occurrence 13.1 Back to citation occurrence 13.2 "دير القديس أنبا مقار الكبير". www.stmacariusmonastery.org. Archived from the original on 2020-02-18. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  14. Back to citation occurrence 14.0 Back to citation occurrence 14.1 "Venerable Macarius the Great of Egypt". oca.org. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  15. Back to citation occurrence 15.0 Back to citation occurrence 15.1 Butler, Alban. (1866). The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. Dublin. p. 35
  16. Back to citation Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Macarius". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  17. Back to citation Kaufman, Paul L. (June 2018). "Did Holiness Begin with John Wesley?". The Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist. 80 (6). Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection: 4–5.

Further reading

  • Maloney, GA, SJ (trans.), 1992, Pseudo-Macarius. The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter, CWS, New York: Paulist Press [English translation]
  • Mason, AJ (trans.), 1921, Fifty Spiritual Homilies of St Macarius the Egyptian, London: SPCK [English translation]
  • Plested, Marcus, 2004. The Macarian Legacy: The Place of Macarius-Symeon in the Eastern Christian Tradition. Oxford: OUP
  • Mason, A.J. (2019). Saint Makarios the Great: The Fifty Spiritual Homilies. Translated by A.J. Mason, amended. SAGOM Press. ISBN 978-1-9456-9920-7.
  • Curtin, DP (trans.), 2023, Apophthegmata, Dalcassian Publishing Company, Philadelphia [English translation]
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