Macarius of Egypt

(d. c. 390)

   Mystic, Saint and Order Founder.

   Macarius was an ascetic who founded a monastery in Upper Egypt, which was to become an important centre. His activities are described by palladius. Since the sixteenth century, he is thought to have been the author of fifty homilies, a mystical (and arguably heretical) work.

   Today many scholars doubt this ascription. Another miracle-working, ascetic Macarius is known as Macarius of Alexandria or Macarius the Younger. The Alexandrian Macarius may have been the author of a monastic Rule of thirty regulations.

   C. Butler, The Lausiac History of Palladius, Vol. 2 (1904);

   E.A. Livingstone (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, revised edition (1997);

   G.L. Marriott, ‘The Messalians and the discovery of their ascetic book’, Harvard Theological Review, xix (1926).