MAKARIOS OF EGYPT

MAKARIOS OF EGYPT (300–390), also known as the Presbyter and Makarios the Great; Christian ascetic and monastic leader. Known from childhood for his prudence and virtue, Makarios was characterized as a "child-old man," that is, a child in age and an old man in conduct. At the age of thirty he renounced the worldly life and went to the desert to become a monk. He repeatedly visited Antony of Egypt and was influenced both by his way of thinking and by his manner of life, which stressed flight from the world, austere asceticism, and constant struggle against Satan. In order to avoid the esteem and praise of others, Makarios went to Scete, in the remote part of the desert, south of Nitria. Because the inhospitality of the place made the ascetic life there difficult, only the most disciplined were able to endure it.

The reputation of Makarios as a saintly man, and his deeds, attracted many ascetics to Scete. In a short time, under his spiritual direction, the monastic center of Scete was enlarged and reorganized. The monks' work, their ergocheiron as it is called in monastic language, consisted of the preparation of baskets woven with straw cut from the marsh. They prayed at appointed hours of the day, and on Saturdays and Sundays they all gathered from the huts scattered around the church for the Divine Liturgy, which was usually celebrated by Makarios himself. Makarios had been ordained a priest at the age of forty, at which time he received the title of Mark the Presbyter. Once a day the monks ate a meal consisting of bread and vegetables, without oil, which was used only on Saturdays and Sundays. During the periods of the great fasts, their diet was more severe. Silence was regarded as one of the greater virtues.

During the more than sixty years that Makarios remained in the desert, he acquired the reputation of a great saint and wonder-worker. He was exiled for a short time to a small island in the Nile by the Arian bishop Lucius and died at the age of ninety. In the Orthodox church his feast day is January 10; in the Western church it is January 15.

The main works that come from the mouth, if not the hand, of Makarios are his Forty-six Sayings, included in Gerontica (narratives on the ascetical accomplishments of the Gerontes, or elders, of Scete). Gennadius of Marseilles mentions a letter of Makarios's that probably is the same as the first letter, Ad filios Dei, of the Latin collection. There is another short ascetical text of about two hundred lines, preserved in the Codex Jerusalemitus 113.

Some collections of homilies, discourses, and letters attributed to Makarios probably do not belong to him. Current research regards Asia Minor or Syria as their place of origin and the ascetic Symeon of Mesopotamia as their author. Preeminent among these is the collection of fifty homilies known as the Spiritual Homilies. However, the question of authorship of the Spiritual Homilies still remains open. Also attributed to Makarios are three other collections of various numbers of homilies; four letters (among which is the Great Epistle ); seven treatises, or ascetical discourses; and two prayers, still used in the Greek Orthodox church.

In his writings Makarios presents the struggle of the faithful against evil, the world, and the passions. The believer can, with the help of divine grace, keep the senses of the soul clean so that they may be inundated by the divine light and become entirely light and spirit. Denial of the desires of the world, of material cares, and of earthly bonds is carried out so that one can receive the Holy Spirit and through the Spirit be enlightened and deified. Because of their mystical and ascetical character, Makarios's writings are highly esteemed, especially in the East. They exerted a great influence on the mystical theology of the Orthodox church, for example in the work of Gregory Palamas. Makarios's influence is also evident through the monastic figure and spiritual writer Evagrios of Pontus, his disciple.

Bibliography

Davids, E. A. Das Bild vom neuen Menschen. Salzburg, 1968.

Desprez, V. Pseudo-Macarie: Œuvres spirituelles, vol. 1. Sources chrétiennes, vol. 275. Paris, 1980.

Dörries, Hermann. Symeon von Mesopotamien: Die Überlieferung der messalianischen "Makarios" Schriften. Leipzig, 1941.

Jaeger, Werner. Two Rediscovered Works of Ancient Christian Literature: Gregory of Nyssa and Macarius. Leiden, 1954. See pages 233–301. Includes the Great Epistle.

Makarios. Patrologia Graeca, edited by J.-P. Migne, vol. 34. Paris, 1860. Includes his letter Ad filios Dei.

Makarios. Die 50 geistlichen Homilien des Makarios. Edited by Hermann Dörries, Erich Klostermann, and Matthias Kroeger. Berlin, 1964.

Theodore Zissis (1987)

Translated from Greek by Philip M. McGhee