Saint Macarius of Alexandria

Some time later, he found himself extremely weakened in his solitude, no doubt due to his great austerities, and the demon, alluding to these words of Saint Anthony, said to him: "Since you have received the grace of Anthony, why do you not use it to obtain food and strength from God, so that you may walk the path you have to travel?" But he repelled him with these words: "The Lord is my strength and my glory, and as for you, do not undertake to tempt his servant." This did not prevent this spirit of malice from coming again to set a trap for him. He took the form of a camel loaded with provisions and came to stop near him. Macarius easily suspected that it was an illusion on his part. He began to pray, and immediately the earth opened and swallowed the fantastic animal.

It is reported from the first years of his monastic profession that which is said of him, that for four months he went every day to visit a brother, without being able to speak to him, because he always found him in prayer. This made him say in a feeling of admiration: "Truly, here is an angel of the earth."

After having received and profited from the instructions of Saint Anthony, he left the Thebaid and ca me to the deser désert de Scété The primary location of Arsenius's monastic life in Egypt. t of Scetis. He was the first to build a monastery there. It is certain that he had a cell there and that he often met with Saint Macarius of Egypt. He also had one in Libya and another in Nit ria; b Nitrie Monastic desert in Egypt. ut his principal residence was in th e desert of the Cel désert des Cellules An extension of the Nitrian Desert populated by the disciples of Ammon. ls, where he exercised the functions of the priesthood, having been made a priest shortly after the other Saint Macarius.

These different cells were more suited to satisfying his love for penance than to protecting him from the inclemencies of the weather; for some were without windows, and he spent the entire Lent sitting in darkness. Another was so narrow that he could not stretch out his full length in it. The one in Nitria was the most spacious, because he only went there to receive and instruct strangers.

Although his love for recollection had fixed him more in the desert of the Cells, nothing extraordinary happened in the neighboring deserts, especially in that of Nitria, where he was not called to determine what should be done; the elders of these deserts all acting in concert for the spiritual advantage of the solitaries under their care.

Saint Macarius distinguished himself primarily by his penance, by his attraction to solitude and prayer, and by the power that God gave him over the spirits of darkness, and other wonders he performed, attested to by his historians in their capacity as eyewitnesses.

We have seen that the various cells he occupied were dwellings of mortification rather than comfortable lodgings. There were no austerities so great, practiced by others, that he did not attempt to imitate and even surpass. Having learned that a solitary monk ate only one pound of bread a day, he had the thought, in order to better mortify his appetite, to break his bread into small pieces, which he put into an earthenware bottle, and to eat only what he could take out with his fingers, a practice he followed for the space of three years, not without suffering much; for, besides the difficulty he had in withdrawing these small pieces, he ate at most only five ounces of bread a day, and drank water only in proportion.

It is also noted that for an entire year he consumed only a small jug of oil. He also sometimes spent the day without taking any food, even though he worked a great deal.

He was told that at Tabennisi the disciple s of Saint P saint Pacôme Founder of cenobitic monasticism in Egypt. achomius ate nothing cooked during Lent, and he wished to do the same for seven years, nourishing himself only with raw herbs or vegetables soaked only in cold water. But his fervor led him to go and see the discipline of Tabennisi for himself, either to better instruct and edify himself, or to live there hidden among so many austere religious, and thereby escape the veneration in which he was held at Nitria and the Cells.

The journey from there to Tabennisi was very long. It was necessary to cross vast deserts, not without suffering extremely. But this difficulty did not stop him. He left his habit so as not to be known and took the costume of a craftsman. He walked for fifteen days in these dreadful solitudes as far as Upper Thebaid, where he presented himself at the door of the monastery of Saint Pachomius, whom he humbly begged to receive him among the number of his religious. The holy abbot, to whom God did not make him known at that time, although He enlightened him in many other encounters with a prophetic light, far from acquiescing to his request, told him that he was too old to sustain the weight of the austerities of his rule; that one had to be trained in it from an early age; and that if he undertook it, he would be tempted to impatience in the labors with which he would be overloaded, which would lead him to murmur, and that finally, instead of persevering, he would leave everything, dissatisfied with the monastery, and go to decry it elsewhere.

This refusal did not discourage him. He persevered for seven days in the same request, although he received from the Saint only the same answer, and was all that time without eating. Finally he said to him: "I conjure you, my Father, to receive me, and if I do not fast and do not do the same as the others, I consent that you send me away." Saint Pachomius, touched by his pe rsevera Pallade Historian and witness to the life of the desert monks. nce, spoke of it to the other brothers, who, according to Palladius, were fourteen hundred in number, and who concluded to admit him.

[...and to participate in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. If someone was absent, it was judged that he was sick, and all the others went to visit him. When a stranger wanted to settle among them, everyone offered him his cell, being disposed to build another for himself. All the brothers occupied themselves with manual labor, which consisted of making baskets and mats. They never lost sight of the presence of God; and the profound silence that reigned throughout the desert contributed not a little to nourish and exalt the fervor of their prayer.

This happened a short time before Lent, and Saint Macarius, attentive to everything that was practiced to make it serve his spiritual advancement, noticed that the religious, each following the ardor they had for penance, had proposed, some to eat only in the evening during the holy forty days, others once every two days, and others after five days. He also observed that some, after remaining seated all day occupied with their work, spent the whole night standing.

These examples of mortification so animated his fervor that he had a large quantity of palm leaves soaked for his work and retired to a corner where he stood throughout Lent, without ever sitting or even leaning, without taking a piece of bread, but only on Sunday some raw cabbage leaves, and in such a small quantity that he ate them more to avoid the temptation of vanity than to nourish himself. He kept a rigorous silence during all this time, and when he was forced to go out, he returned immediately to his work, always keeping his mind and heart raised toward God.

Saint Pachomius, occupied with the general government of the Order, had not noticed the way he had lived. But the other religious, and especially those who were the most austere, had taken note of it, and they were so struck by it that they brought their complaints to their abbot, saying that he had brought a man who lived as if he were only a pure spirit, without flesh and bone, and who seemed to have come to them only to condemn them. They begged him consequently to dismiss him, and confessed that if he stayed longer, they could no longer bear it themselves.

The holy abbot inquired about the details of his conduct following these complaints. He was quite astonished; he understood that there was something extraordinary in this stranger and that he was not just beginning the labors of religious life. He said nothing to them about it, however; but he had recourse to prayer, to obtain from God that He make him known to him. It was revealed to him that it was Macarius, whose reputation was spread throughout all the deserts. After he had finished his prayer, he went straight to him, took him by the hand, led him to the chapel where the altar was, and embracing him tenderly, he spoke to him thus: "It is you, then, O venerable old man? You are Macarius, and you hid it from me. It is a long time since I heard of you and desired to see you. I owe you thanks for having humbled my children. You have taken away from them by your example all reason to pride themselves on vanity and to have too advantageous feelings about themselves because of their austerities. Return, I beg you, to your solitude, and pray for us."

This man, insatiable for penance, once proposed to fight sleep, to test if he could overcome it. He later recounted this to Palladius, saying: "For this purpose, I spent twenty days and as many nights in the open; being scorched by the heat during the day, and chilled by the cold during the night. But at the end of this time, I was forced to throw myself promptly into a cell, where I fell asleep, otherwise I would have collapsed."

The enemy of salvation gave him, in another encounter, through temptations against purity with which he besieged him, the occasion to practice a terrible mortification. He went to the marsh of Scetis to expose himself naked to the gnats, whose stings in that place are so penetrating that even the skin of wild boars is not proof against their bites. He practiced this penance for six months, and these insects covered his body with so many pustules and blisters that when he returned to his cell, he could only be recognized by the sound of his voice, and many believed he had leprosy.

Another act of mortification, much lesser than that one, and which Palladius reports, makes us know at the same time how faithful the religious men under his discipline were in sacrificing the satisfactions of the senses to God. This is one of the most edifying examples and one that deserves to be reported, although it is common to the Father and the disciples.

Saint Macarius once had a desire to eat grapes. He made it known, and a fresh bunch was immediately brought to him; but, when he saw it, he wished to deprive himself of it, and joining charity to abstinence, he had it taken to a brother whom he believed to be in greater need of it than himself, because he did not enjoy good health. The latter first showed joy at this gift, which was sent to him by such a holy man; but although he had very much desired to eat it, he made a sacrifice of it to God, to whom he gave thanks, and carried it to another, who, equally mortified and charitable, did not touch it, and also carried it to a third who did the same. Finally, this bunch of grapes was thus carried from hand to hand in all the cells of the desert, which were numerous and quite far from one another, until the last one to whom it was offered sent it to Saint Macarius as a gift that would be pleasing to him, unaware that he had received it before all the others.

The Saint immediately recognized the bunch, but he wanted to be more certain; and when he learned that it had passed through all the cells without any brother having touched it, he felt great joy and thanked God to see so much mortification and charity in these holy solitaries. He did not wish to eat it either, and that served as a motive for him to practice the exercises of the spiritual life with renewed ardor.

This man of penance was also a great man of prayer, the one leading to the other. But the order he kept in his exercises was very well suited to obtain from God the precious gift. He divided the day into three parts, one of which was employed at different hours in prayer and contemplation, and he performed no fewer than one hundred prayers a day. He spent another part of the time in manual labor, and the third in exercising charity toward the brethren, giving them the advice and instructions they needed.

By sharing his time between these different exercises, it can be said that he never lost sight of God, whether he was praying or acting, maintaining in great peace the purity of his soul through the purity of intention that sanctified his works, and having his heart always raised toward God, whatever he did. There were other solitaries who performed a greater number of prayers than he. Some performed three hundred, others up to seven hundred. As for him, he followed the attraction that God had given him, by mixing the active life with the contemplative, and he was not at all jealous that others performed more prayers than he. One can even say, with a learned historian, that the fervor of his own well compensated for this shortcoming.

It was in sublime prayers that this Saint drew extraordinary lights, whether to distinguish true revelations from the illusions of the demon, or to penetrate the secrets of the consciences of the brethren and of those who addressed themselves to him. The demon once came to knock at the door of his cell and said to him: "Rise, Abbot Macarius, and let us go with the brethren to perform the night prayer." But, says Rufinus who reports this, "the Saint, who was filled wit h God Rufin Ecclesiastical historian whose work serves as a source (erroneously mentioned as 'Enfin'). , immediately knew the artifice of the demon and answered him: O spirit of falsehood and enemy of all truth, what is there in common between you and this assembly of Saints?" — "You are unaware then, O Macarius," the demon replied, "that the solitaries never assemble for prayer without us being there? Just come, and you will see our works." — "Impure spirit," the Saint replied, "may God repress your malice and tame your power!"

He then began to pray and asked the Lord to let him know if what the demon boasted of was true. Then he went to the assembly where the brethren were performing the office during the night, and renewed the same prayer to God. Then he saw what looked like small, extremely ugly Ethiopian children, spread throughout the church, running in all directions, and with such speed that one would have said they had wings.

Now, it was the custom of the solitaries that during prayer, all the brethren being seated, there was one who recited a psalm and the others who listened and responded to each verse. These little Ethiopians, running here and there, performed various mischiefs to those who were seated. They closed the eyelids of some, who fell asleep immediately; they made others yawn by putting their fingers in their mouths. Then, when the psalm was finished, the brethren prostrating themselves on the ground, according to custom, to pray, they ran around them, appearing to one in the figure of a woman, to another as building some house or carrying something, and finally to others in other ways; which caused these solitaries to turn over in their minds everything that the demons represented to them in their play.

But they did not succeed in the same way with everyone; for wanting to approach some, they were so vigorously repelled that they fell to the ground, and could not after that either remain standing or pass by them again; whereas they walked on the heads and backs of some other brethren whose devotion was weak, and mocked them because they were not attentive to their prayer.

Saint Macarius, seeing this, heaved a deep sigh, and said to God while shedding many tears: "Consider, Lord, how the demon sets traps for us. Make him hear your powerful voice, and the effects of your anger. Arise, so that your enemies may be scattered and flee before your face, since you see how they fill our souls with illusions."

However, the prayer being finished, the Saint wanted to delve deeper into the truth, and called in private, one after the other, those of the brethren to whom he had noticed that the demons had appeared in various forms, and he asked them if during the prayer they had not thought of buildings, journeys, or other similar things. They confessed it to him, and he then knew that the vain thoughts that come to our minds in prayer are, most of the time, caused by the illusion of the demons, repelled by those who watch carefully over themselves; "because," adds Rufinus, "a soul that is united to God and that during the time of prayer has a particular attention toward him, cannot suffer that anything foreign or anything useless enters into it to turn it away."

If Saint Macarius was great through the eminence of his prayers and supernatural lights, he was no less so through the gift of miracles, and in this he did not yield to the famous Macarius of Egypt, whom historians represent to us as the wonder-worker of his time. We have spoken of the power that God had given him over demons. He delivered such a great number of demoniacs through his word, accompanied by a living faith, that the historian of his life says it would be very difficult to count them.

One can see in the life of Macarius the Elder some circumstances of the life of Macarius of Alexandria that are common to both solitary saints. Finally, Saint Macarius of Alexandria, after having spent at least sixty years in solitude, ended with his death (394 or 395 according to Tillemont) a life of holiness and wonders, and left behind him, along with the memory of his virtues, the remembrance of one of the most famous solitaries who sanctified the deserts through his love for God and the practice of severe penance.

Saint Macarius the Younger is represented: 1° with the sack or basket he used to carry sand and thus subdue his body through fatigue; 2° near him a lioness bringing him her cub which is blind. The holy man restores its sight, and the next day, the grateful mother brings him a ram's skin. The man of God accepts the gift on the condition that in the future she will no longer harm the poor country folk. This ram's skin later passed, it is said, into the hands of Saint Melania; 3° surrounded by a great number of other ferociou sainte Mélanie Saint who received the miraculous ram's skin. s animals, to express that he ventured very far into the desert; 4° carrying a vial suspended from his neck. This vial contained the blessed oil with which he anointed those who were possessed by the demon, in order to deliver them.