Our Holy Father Macarius of Alexandria.

Commemorated January 19 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

Born in Alexandria, he was at first a fruit-vendor. He was only baptised at the age of forty, and immediately went off to seek the ascetic life. He was a disciple of St Antony, together with Macarius the Great, and abbot of the monastery of the Cells beyond Nitria. Somewhat younger than the other Macarius, he also died later. He was tormented by diabolical temptations, particularly the temptation to lust for power, but, humbling himself by the most rigorous of labours and by unceasing prayer, he lifted his mind up constantly to God. One of the brethren once saw him carrying a full basket of sand uphill and emptying it. The astonished brother asked him why he was doing that. Macarius replied: 'I am wearing out him who wears me out' (that is, the devil).He entered into rest in the year 393, being nearly a hundred years old.

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK