Venerable Macarius the Great

Life

Macarius was an Egyptian, one of the younger contemporaries of Anthony the Great. His father was a priest. Out of obedience to his parents he married, but his wife soon died and he withdrew into the desert where he spent a full sixty years in labor and struggle, internal and external, for the heavenly kingdom. When they asked him why he was so thin whether he ate or did not eat, he answered: "From the fear of God." He succeeded so much in purifying his mind from evil thoughts and his heart from evil desires that God gifted him with the abundant gift of wonderworking, so that he even raised the dead from the grave. His humility amazed people and demons. A demon once said to him: "There is only one thing in which I cannot overcome you; it is not fasting, for I never eat anything; it is not vigil either, for I never sleep." "Then what is it?" Macarius asked him. "Your humility," the demon answered. To his disciple Paphnutius, Macarius often said: "Condemn no one, and you will be saved." He lived ninety-seven years. Nine days before his death, Saint Anthony and Saint Pachomius appeared to him from the other world and announced to him that in nine days he would die, which indeed happened. Just before his death a cherub appeared to him who revealed to him in a vision the blessed heavenly world, praised his labor and virtue and told him that he was sent to take his soul into the heavenly Kingdom. He reposed in the year 390.

From the Hymn of Praise

In Egypt in the desertGreat love reignedAmong simple monksAs in a kingdom of saints.