Life of Macarius Alexandria

(-17-) (Sa)totⲥ she flew up high (she stood) me (in) her form as a martyr falling down. Then I knew from her that God wished to save me and a voice came to me saying, "Macarius, arise, go for yourself to the marsh, they will fall for you, find a stone and walk to your cell." He himself went, he fell into the marsh and hid a little. And the marsh went its way and both she and another one, one of them would give him a fall every day and I built my cell until the day of walking, all the marshes fled, they left. I then entered my cell on the fifth day. (It happened again) at a time when he was sitting in his cell, a (viper) came to him, its mouth in its mouth, it was coiling itself and it placed itself at his door and it coiled its head inside the door. The old man heard its coiling, he came out thinking it was a brother who had come to him. When he

Then he opened the door, and he saw the old woman. He turned and said, "This one is seeking a place." But she sealed her mouth to her jaw, she stretched it out toward the old man, weeping. The old man took the jaw upward in his hands in his simplicity, being established. He uncovered it with me, and there was no one seeking in his body, for what disease was in it? When he gave his attention to the jaw, behold, he became blind in his eye. He rose up and cried out, and he spat his own spittle into his face, he sealed his eyes with his spittle. Immediately he saw outside, and he ran until his mother, he ate, took, and walked after her, and they went into the river there... and into the marsh, to reach it. The sheep of the Fayyum bring them down into the marsh of Shiet once a year, and they eat alone. And the other waters also that exist in the villages on both sides of the river bring their herds down into the marsh of Shiet once a year, and they eat by themselves. The old woman left a day behind her, but her anger came upon the old man, as a flock of sheep was in her mouth, well arranged, fitting, and prepared for her, and she turned her face inward toward the door. The old man was sitting in the light, when he heard.

He opened the door, and he found the old woman, with the jaw hanging down from her. He said to the old woman, "Have you reached where? Have you found this one outside? Have you eaten a sheep? The one you would give to me outside is in the taking by force; I will not take it from you." The old woman then bent her head down to the ground with her limbs, bending her thighs, giving herself to him like a person that he might take her from her. He said to her, "I have been saying to you that I will not take it outside your mouth for you, that I will not give pain to the poor who eat their sheep." And she made her head move more, downward and upward, as if giving her mouth to him. Again he answered her, "Outside your mouth for me, that I will not set up a living animal, but you will eat it bound, dead. From now on, if you suffer, if you seek and do not find, come to me here, I will give you bread, and do not take anything by force from now on." The old woman bent her head down to the ground with... she placed herself on her limbs, bending her thighs, moving her head downward and upward, down before his face, as if giving her mouth to him. And the old man marveled in his heart, "The economy of God is what gives marvel to the wild beasts for the taking of prey, not us." And he gave glory to God.

The one who gave food to the wild beasts, and he prayed to God, the one who exists forever, in the Egyptian tongue, saying, "My soul is weary." He said, "I give glory to you, O God, the one who was with Daniel in the den of lions. He gave food to the beasts. Likewise now, you have given food to my old woman, and you did not leave me naked, but you made her give food, saying, 'This portion is yours.'" And the old man took the jaw from the woman's hand. She went to her place, and after a few days she returned to him. If she did not find food, she would go to him, and he would give her a loaf of bread. This happened many times. The old man would sleep on the jaw until he rested. And I saw him with my own eyes, for truly, when he wanted to rest, Melania, the Roman, rejoiced, taking his burden. She gave that jaw to her as an inheritance. This remained with her until her death, as she kept it in faith and remembrance. It happened again once: he went out into the middle of some reeds. There was a cave there, in which no one knew of. That cave was a murderer's, and he was hidden in the reeds because of the murder. And when the sun rose over him, he became angry.

The old man came to the ground, and he stood upon the ground, but he did not know. The wild beast of the earth seized the old man by his thigh. But he, having taken hold of the wild beast while it was alive in his hand, said to him, "What is this violence that you have done to me, that you have dared to eat me? Does not God give you your nature? Go, I will do to you according to your evil nature." And the old man seized the two feet of the wild beast in his hand, blessed them, drew them apart in its midst to its side, and made them two. And thus the old man was not pained at all, but he was like one who had broken a reed. This Abba Macarius, however, had many cells: twenty-three in the desert. He had one cell in the inner desert, and another inside the cells, and another in the mountain called the Cells, and another in the mountain of Pernouj. There were some among them who were anchorites, for they had houses in the inner desert, which men do not approach. These are the ones who were in them during the time of the forty days, being caves that were dark, lying beneath the ground, like tombs of the dead, for they were dark in such a way that he could not even stretch out his feet.

entirely. But the beast that had seized the man, this one was about to tear him apart. Then the holy old man, Apa Macarius, healed many people whose eyes were with them, but they were very blind, unable to see. (-kd-) Now while he was staying there, they brought a virgin to him who was weeping greatly and very ill. This one, having heard of his fame in her region, they brought her to him, and after he had prayed over some oil, he anointed her entire body with his holy hands many times. Through the oil, God healed her through his prayers, and he sent her to her house, healthy, having been saved, giving glory to God. This one, after she had gone to her city, after twenty days, she died, leaving behind a hundred gold coins. But before she rested, she made a will that they give them to the holy Apa Macarius because of the manner in which she had been saved. For the fame of the holy Apa Macarius had spread abroad, and another virgin heard about him. She came to him from Thessalonica; her name was Lydia, a scribe who wrote books for reading, practicing greatly in a life of manliness. (-ke-) This one completed a full year.

It happened in a great cave of the Aseratan, the old man once. This cave, which no one else had seen in the whole mountain except on the day it went out from the mountain to go to its place. And the hidden thought that she had concerning the old man, God gave her rest from him through the prayers of the old man; she went to her place giving glory to God because he had given her rest through her coming to the old man. This blessed one, however, heard about the monks of Tabennesi once, who were pure of heart in the desert of Parembole, that they performed many great ascetic practices. Apa Macarius arose, changed his habit, and put on a workman's garment like a laborer, and went to the desert of Parembole, walking through the wilderness for many days until he arrived there. When he reached the great monastery (number 26), he went and inquired about the father of the monastery, whose name was Apa Pachom, a chosen and tested man, who had a gift of prophecy from God. God had not informed him about Apa Macarius, for he had heard about him and wished to see him. When Apa Macarius met him, he said to him, "I greet you, my father; receive me into your monastery, for I too wish to become a monk.

Apa Pahom said to him, "Do you wish something, my brother? Behold, I see you have become an old man according to the age of your body. You have no strength to practice the ascetic life. And all the brothers are ascetics. They will not be able to bear your weakness, and they will be scandalized because of you. If you speak to them, go away from here to the place of the strangers, the poor, and the wretched, and sit there. I will send you food there until you wish to return there alone." But he did not accept it for himself, neither on the first day nor from the second to the seventh day. When Abba Macarius became weak from fasting, he met the superior of the monastery again and said to him, "Receive me, my father. And if I am unable to fast and to work and to do manual labor as is the custom in your monastery," then he sent for the brothers to bring him in. Now the number of the brothers there was fourteen thousand monks in the monastery. Abba Macarius went, and after a few days the holy season of the forty days of Lent came, and he saw all the brothers, each one of them practicing some ascetic discipline, some standing, some...

Some would fast until evening every day; others would eat only at the ninth hour; others would fast for two days at a time; still others would fast and then stand in prayer the whole night through, sitting during the day. Apa Macarius himself went, removed his garments, rolled them up, and placed them on a high stone in the church, standing in a narrow space of his cell, bending his knees until the heat of the day was past, without sitting down at all, nor eating any bread, nor drinking any water, nor tasting any food. But on the Lord's Day he would take some palm leaves and eat them, so that they might know he was eating. And if he went out to the water's edge or to wash his garments, he would run back into his cell immediately, without speaking to anyone, nor opening his mouth at all, but standing with his mouth closed, praying in his heart, working with his hands. When all the ascetics in that place of the twenty-eighth work saw him, they rose up against their abbot, saying, "You have brought this old man here to us. Perhaps he has no flesh on him? You have brought him to us so that he might judge us, or to drive us out of this place, or for all of us to flee away." When Apa Pahom heard of their way of life, he prayed to God that he might

The elder did not know who he was. But God revealed to him that this was Abba Macarius the Alexandrian, the one who dwells in Scetis. And the superior of the monastery took the elder by the hand and led him into the midst of the place of the synaxis, after they had finished the prayers of the place of the vigil, so that the whole multitude of the brothers might see him, and he said to him, "Come with me, O cataloguer. Who are you, Abba Macarius? Have you hidden yourself from us? For how long have I heard about you and desired to see you? But I receive grace from you, because you have given edification to all of us, and you have given instruction to the young brothers not to become proud in their practice which they perform. But if they exert all their strength, they will not reach the height of the fervor of the days of our fathers and our Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Especially your practices are beyond the living man, and moreover you have become an elder. Go to your place in peace. You have given edification to all of us for profit, and pray for us." Then he went away, and they all bowed to him and did him honor, saying, "Pray for us." He also told us this other thing: "Various practices which I undertook...

I completed them, but this desire came upon my heart, and I wished to see. I wished to spend the days with my heart rejoicing in God at all times, taking no pleasure in any way of this world. And having given my mouth in this manner in my heart, I went into the cave that is in the desert, the one that has no door, nor window, nor any light in it, so that no man might find me. And I stood upon the hill in the cave, and I gave my mind, saying in this manner: "Keep yourself, do not come down from the sky, for you are there with the patriarchs and the prophets and the apostles. You are there with the angels and the archangels and the powers above, and the cherubim and the seraphim. Hold fast to God the Father, and the only-begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit, the consubstantial Trinity, the God of gods, the king of all the ages. Lift me up upon the cross of the Son in the sky; do not come down from the place of strength." And when I had finished two days, he said to me, and at dawn, the demons began to trouble me, so that they troubled me with many phantoms. Sometimes they became like lions, opening their jaws to devour me; sometimes

also they became like snakes slithering into my caves at evening. But they became like a flame of fire burning all the things that were in the river, until they entered the river and the other dome that stood upon it, and they all burned until the two holy places themselves, so that I thought I would burn as well. And at evening the fire and the phantasms fled. On the fourth day of the week of the monastery, I was in my mind without rejoicing, but I fell into the pits of sorrow and the cares of this world according to men. For I thought that if I had been able to fulfill this commandment, I would have destroyed my heart, the elevation of my heart in distress. Therefore, the rest that I placed upon the cares of this world in my heart, so that I would not fall into despair. He also said thus: I spent years in the ascetic practices of the labor of this day. (33) It happened also while I was with the holy Albinos, a priest of a village came to Abba Macarius, whose whole face was swollen, being leprous from the disease called elephantiasis, which had eaten his entire face, and it was swollen so that you could not see his eyes.

so that he might be greatly afraid. This one destroyed the one who had everything, along with the vessels, and he did not heal him. When he despaired, he came to the old man, saying, "So that God might heal him from his sickness." He brought him down under their feet, and he turned his face away from him. The old man did not receive his face from him, but he turned his face completely away from him. We, however, turned our face to him, saying, "Our father, have pity on this man; give him your face; do him a favor in his distress." And he said, "Leave him; he is not worthy to be healed, for if he stirs, he will commit fornication; he will go up to the place of the thirty-four, the place of the thorns." He himself spent three days turning his face away from him, not giving him his face. Finally, he had pity on his disciples and on his turning away, and he called to him, saying to him, "Do you know why God brought this punishment down upon you?" He answered him, "Yes, my lord." He said to him, "You have gained strength to mock him." He said, "Yes, my lord." The old man said to him, "If you know your sins, or if you repent of them, you will be saved." Then he revealed his sin. The old man said to him, "Why did you not leave the priesthood behind you, so that you might not be led into eternal punishments, and you will be saved?

Then we said to him, "The matter is up to you, old man, for I will not go down to the place of the threshing-floor, so that God might heal him through the prayers of this saint." And he gave his consent to the old man, saying, "I will not go down to the place of the threshing-floor." An old man prayed over some oil, anointed his entire head and face, and God gave him healing. His head became as hard as a rock again, and he let him go, having gone away saying, "I will sit and be a layman until I die." This other thing happened before us. They brought a young man to him who had a demon with him. The old man placed his hand on his head, and the other hand he placed on his heart, and he prayed to God with a burning heart and a trembling, until they cast the demon up into the air, crying out, saying, "Woe is me!" The young man, however, became like a corpse through the intensity of his body, and when he cried out with a great voice, his eyes, his ears, his hair, his mouth, and all his lower limbs shook, water flowing from them like small springs. And when he had poured out the waters, he became as he was before. Then the old man raised his hand, praying, and he said,

He said, "The glory is to you, O Lord Jesus Christ, who helps those who have hope." And he poured a basin of water over him, and anointed him with holy oil, having made the sign of the cross over him a little, and he commanded him, saying, "Do not eat for three days, nor drink wine." And when he was healed, he gave him back to his father, who was joyful. Now it happened also at that time that there was a famine over the whole land, and the monks who were in that mountain came, for some monks of the mountain were wandering in the desert, and they came to the cell of Abba Macarius, each having a camel with them, carrying the vessels and the water, so that they might dwell in the desert. When they entered the cell of Abba Macarius, they did not find him in the cell. They took all the necessities of the body and his handiwork and the small vessels, carried them out, and loaded them onto the camel. Now it happened that when they had loaded the vessels onto it, they thought that it would not be able to rise, for the camel could not rise. Then his hour came, behold, the old man came out from the place where he was hidden, and he saw.

...the men and the camel at the well. He thought that they had need of a body for him from Egypt, so that they might take from him his handiwork according to his custom. When he had gone to them, he recognized his companions and his neighbors and his small bodily needs, and he ceased his speech. When they saw the holy elder, they fell down and worshipped him, giving honor to him in repentance. But he did not become angry nor did he give them any attention, but he blessed them and went into the monastery. He said, "Have they taken all the vessels that are in the monastery? Until a small flask of oil, in which there are a few drops remaining at the back of the rim, no one knew about it." The elder of the cellarer brought the flask of the drops and brought it to them, and said to them, "Do you wish to know why the camel was not able to rise?" They said, "Yes." He said to them, "Because you have washed these small drops, therefore you were not able to move her." And when he brought the flask to the camel and gave her a drink of water, immediately she rose, and he released them in peace, and he dismissed them. After his rest, some brothers came to the elder from the road concerning some new matters, and the time of eating was already...

...it happened that the brothers wished to eat a little. He understood their murmuring and said to them, "There is bread in your baskets; bring it to me and let us eat a little." For the needs of the body are in the place of dwelling. God sent them some people of the world who had wives there, for they were poor and had need of them in this work of this kind. He said this also before the young brothers, giving them counsel: "Since the day I became a monk, I have not eaten bread to satiety, nor have I slept to satiety. All the strong fathers did not become ill because they were moderate with their bodies in a measured way." He said this to us concerning him: that in the days of his youth he spent an entire year without putting clothing on himself except a palm mat tied around his loins and his limbs. He had three cells in the desert: one extending into the great inner desert, one in the middle of the place in the desert, and one facing the people a little to the east. It happened also another time that the thought of vainglory and pride came to Abba Macarius, wishing to cast him out of the cell. The thoughts said to him, "Behold, your name has become great in the whole world. Arise, go to Rome, the city of the emperors, so that you may heal those who are sick, and so that you may not give them trouble for this whole time." For the Romans and the people of Egypt are eager for your asceticism and your right faith.

...out through the work of my hands, the demons would wish to seize it from me in the river. I used to say to him, "God has given you a desire in your heart and a great gift to heal you. Go, for it is the economy of God." When he saw that they had caused him trouble, he sat down on the bank of the river and said to them, "If you are able, bring me out from this violent path." Again, when the demons caused him trouble and in the taking of the form of being fierce against him, he cried out with a great voice and anger, "I have been saying to you, 'There is no one who can touch me. If you are able, take me to Rome.' Behold, I am sitting in this place until the sun sets." When he had finished sitting, he arose, and when evening came, the thoughts troubled him again, and he took a basket, put it down, and placed two hundred measures of sand in it, and lifted it onto himself, and he went around with it throughout the whole desert. And he encountered him.

Theosebeia the Cosmite said to him, "You have done such a thing, my father. Tell it to me, do not give yourself trouble for me." He said to him, "I give trouble to the one who gives trouble to me, for truly if I give him rest, he brings me thoughts, saying, 'Stand up, go to a stranger.'" When he had gone, wandering in the desert, he entered the monastery, his body being naked. Now the disciple of that one who served him in his old age, the one who had revealed the son of the Dux to him, for he had believed, this one who had taken the place of the old man and is now in the mountain, working at his handiwork, eating from his labor, being very hospitable. This disciple, then, who is the spiritual son of Abba Macarius, said to me, "Abba Macarius said to me, 'I gave the eyes of the moment of the mysteries when I gave the blessing to Mark the ascetic once, but he prevented me from seeing an angel giving him a blessing in his hands.'" Abba Macarius, however, was a presbyter of the church of Mark. He himself was a deacon, having received the Old and New Testaments of the Apostles, being very eloquent and prudent. On one of the days, then, when Abba Macarius had become old, I went...

to me, "I have turned to him, I sat at his door because I heard the words he was saying, which he had been saying for forty years, namely Abba Macarius. I heard him speaking with him alone, saying, 'What do you want, you slanderer Macarius? Have you drunk wine? Have you taken oil? What do you want again, you who have eaten his garments?' After that, he also spoke with the other devil, saying, 'Is there nothing you have against me? Will you find nothing you have in me? Go away from me.' He also acted as if he were beating his body, saying in this manner, 'Come, you traitor of a horse, I am not afraid of you; until evening I will be with you.' Then Paphnutius, the disciple of Abba Macarius, said to us, 'The old man said to me, "It is seven years today that I do not know myself, that I have picked up a piece of dung from the ground." I see him now, Abba Macarius, a short man, with a few white hairs on his cheeks and the tip of his beard. The disciple of Abba Macarius told me, 'The father said to me, "There is no Sabbath or Lord's Day that I have not seen the angel of the place performing the liturgy at the altar before the offering of the

God. (—) Again, I heard this other thing from him, and it was very marvelous, as he was saying, "It happened to me on one of the days of the feast, when the deacon was inside the place of the sanctuary, preparing the offering. The vessel fell from his hand, and it made a great noise. It was a glass vessel, for the place was a desert, and they had no ability to replace them. I heard the sound of the vessel, that it had broken in the hand of the deacon. I entered into the place of the sanctuary, and all the people were sitting, singing psalms. I said to the deacon, 'Do not be disturbed, and do not be faint of heart at all, but gather all the pieces. Do not leave any behind among them, but bring them upon the place of the sanctuary. Come out, leave it.' And when the holy Abba Macarius came out with the deacon, they sat for a little while. Abba Macarius said to the deacon, 'Go into the place of the sanctuary. The one whom you will see, do not tell anyone about him.' The deacon went in and found the vessel whole, and the vessel had been broken. But the marks of the pieces that had broken were revealed, but they were not joined together as a whole. Until now, that vessel exists there. When I heard this wonder, I went to the deacon who had become a priest.

He showed me that vessel, and I saw it with my own eyes. I gave the blessing to him and gave glory to God. And when the father of the abbot had set the boundary of the village of Chani, he turned back to the mountain and brought a great diakonia and distributed it to the old men of the desert. He indicated to that priest and gave that vessel to him for a remembrance. Behold, it is kept in the abbot's heart of the boundary until this day. It was also said concerning him, the holy Abba Macarius the Alexandrian, that when he was a child in Alexandria (— 42 —), he was a mime in his craft until he became a great man in the world. But when he became a monk and had labored in virtue in the desert, his fellow mimes heard about him, that he had labored in the work of God. They came down to him in the desert, being twelve in their company. And when he had greeted them, they sat down before him. They were amazed at him and at his manner. At the time of the meal, he gave them water for the washing and set it before them, wishing to wash their feet. But as he was bending down over the water so that his beard might dip into it, before he could lift his head up from it, he sat down and rejoiced with them as if he were in the world. But at the time they saw

to him in this manner, they said to one another, "Was it not said concerning him that he became a man of God? Behold, he is still in the same state as he was in the world with us, and we see no change in him except the manner in which he is with us in Rakoti." When Abba Macarius saw them speaking to one another about the great boldness he had shown with them, he brought a clean basin, placed it before the great one among them, and said to him, "Fill this basin with chaff and set it on the fire so that we may bake a loaf and eat." When they heard about the chaff, they were amazed, saying, "Truly, Macarius has advanced in the monastic life beyond the manner that was with us in the world." Again he said to them, "He who will tell you, do it." They listened to him, filled the basin with chaff, set it on the fire, and it became a loaf like a loaf of wheat that is leavened. The monks, when they saw the miracle that had happened through the holy elder Abba Macarius, did not return to Egypt, but rather renounced the world, became monks, and practiced the deeds of the holy elder Abba Macarius.

They also said concerning him, the righteous Abba Macarius of Alexandria, that there came a time when the heaven did not give rain upon the earth, and a multitude of locusts and caterpillars occurred in the houses of the people. Abba Timothy, the archbishop of Alexandria, sent some workmen to Abba Macarius, entreating him, saying, "Come to Alexandria, pray to God that a rain of locusts and caterpillars may cease, and that the hearts of the people may be set at rest from the great fear." He went with them to Alexandria, and when he entered the city, a great multitude came out to meet him with palm branches. When he reached the Tetrapylon in the middle of the city, he prayed to God in his heart with great earnestness. When he came near the gate of the sun, the heaven began to gather clouds. When he entered the church, there occurred a great rain of locusts for two days and two nights, so that the people thought that the earth would sink from the weight of the locusts in the air. The old man said to the archbishop, "Why did you send for me, or why did you bring me to this place?" And the multitudes

people, saying, "We have been afflicted, and we have come to you to pray that you might bring the death of the locusts." Behold, he did this thing for us. Now the majority of them prayed that the death of the locusts might go away from us, so that it would not destroy all of us, and we would die, we and our children and our cattle and all the things that belong to us. But the holy old man Abba Macarius prayed, and immediately the death of the locusts went away. In that hour the heaven gave rain through the grace of God and the prayers of the holy one, Abba Macarius. Then the pagans of Rakoti cried out, saying, "A magician has entered through the gate of the sun, and the judge did not know." But Abba Macarius spent three days there, healing many people there who were sick, and many who were possessed, and many other kinds of illnesses in the three days that he spent in Rakoti after he had come there from the desert. This happened through God so that many might be saved and that he might give the death of the locusts as a gift to the holy Abba Macarius. And after these things he came out of Rakoti and went to the monastery of Shiet again by the power of God. The brothers used to say to him, "Our father, you have gone to Rakoti." But he said to them, "I have not.

Believe me, my brethren, that I saw neither a column nor a marketplace at that time, nor did I see the face of any man except the archbishop alone. The crowds were pressing upon me greatly, surrounding me, but I placed it in my heart that I would not lift my eyes upward to look upon anyone on the ground, so that I might give no occasion for my eyes to wander. I will continue concerning the deeds of Abba Macarius. For in this manner, then, is the strength of the perfect one in truth. Abba Macarius, the beloved, was a man of joy, like Moses. He was diligent above all, giving zeal to the young men that they might stand in virtue, saying to them, "I have never let my hand fall idle, nor have I labored in asceticism." He was beloved in the presence of all, being very compassionate. It was also said concerning him that every virtue which he saw, he accomplished all of them, and also those which he heard about. I wish, then, O my beloved, to speak many things to you concerning Abba Macarius. These are the things which I have been able to gather, a few indeed, from his practices and his asceticisms. He became an elder, being perfect. The day of his perfection, he rested on the sixth of the month of Pashons.

Let us stop here concerning the wondrous deeds of the holy abba Macarius of Alexandria. Let us stop here, lest the discourse become too lengthy. For those things which we have recounted in brief to those who hear are sufficient, and they are not to be taken as though they were the full portion and the clergy of this place. Truly, abba Macarius of Alexandria, or rather, the citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of all those who rejoice in the grace and the virtues and the philanthropy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whose is the glory forever and ever, amen.