The saint of God Macarius was born in Nizhny Novgorod from pious parents. His father's name was Ivan, his mother's name was Maria. Even in infancy, Macarius surprised them: when they called for matins, he began to toss and turn restlessly in the cradle and cry. And Macarius responded to every church bell in this way, but at other times he was silent. For a long time, the parents could not understand what was the matter, and began to worry, but one day everything was resolved.
Once, on a holiday, the church rang, the parents began to gather for matins, and little Macarius, as always, began to scream and cry.
“If he stopped crying,” said his father, “they would take him with them to the service.” Macarius immediately calmed down, and when they brought him to the church, he heard the singing of the singers, laughed, and then smiled cheerfully at his mother throughout the service. Then the parents understood why Macarius wept, and from that day on they began to carry him to the temple; each time he was very happy, and if they left him at home, he began to scream and cry again. Here the parents understood that God's grace rests on their child.
When Macarius grew up, they sent him to study book literacy, and in this matter he soon succeeded so that he surpassed not only his peers, but also his elders. He looked more like an adult than a lad: despite his natural sharpness and lively mind, he was sedate and reasonable in character. Macarius did not like to play with children, he patiently sat at the books, and went to church every day. Everyone loved him, his parents rejoiced over him and thanked God.
The lad Macarius heard about monasticism and secretly decided to leave parental home and go to a monastery. He chose the Pechersk monastery, located on the banks of the Volga, three miles from the city, and went there. On the way he met a beggar, dressed in cast-offs, Macarius exchanged clothes with him and, under the guise of a beggar, approached the monastery.
The youth wished to see the archimandrite (then he was Dionysius, later Bishop of Suzdal) and asked to become a monk. The abbot, seeing the young age of Macarius, began to ask where he was from and who his parents were. Macarius concealed his origin. He called himself a resident of another city, said that he was an orphan, a beggar and he had no one close to him. He himself, finished Macarius, wants to serve God in the monastery.
The abbot liked his speech, besides, he foresaw that the lad was called to become a great ascetic. Therefore, without any delay, he accepted him into a monastery, tonsured him as a monk, settled him in his cell, and for many years became his father, mentor and teacher.
Monk Macarius worked diligently and fulfilled every obedience; he obeyed his mentor in everything, pleased the brethren, did not enter into disputes with anyone, was silent, much more often than he spoke; and if he talked to someone, then he was sure to be brief and gentle, and even then he tried to end the conversation as soon as possible. Soon they started talking about him as a great ascetic, not only in the monastery, but also outside it.
The saint's parents, not having any news from their son, asked about him everywhere and grieved greatly, but did not lose hope of finding him.
About three years passed, and then it happened to Father Macarius to meet with one monk from the Caves, who had come to the city on some monastic business. The father told him about his grief, his son disappeared three years ago, and since then nothing has been heard about him.
The monk said: “It seems that just three years ago a young man came to our monastery, he was dressed like a beggar, but he looked respectable and pious, and tearfully asked to be accepted. The abbot left him in the monastery, and now this young man has become one of the best monks and succeeds almost the most. His name is also Macarius.
The father cried. He immediately went to the monastery and searched everywhere for Macarius, but could not see him in any way. Desperate, he went to the abbot and fell at his feet, begging to see his son. Then the abbot went to his cell, where Macarius also lived. “Child,” said the abbot, “your father, whom you did not tell us about, has come to the monastery and wants to see you.” “My father,” replied Macarius, “the Lord God, who created heaven and earth, and after Him, you, my mentor and teacher.”
And his father was standing at that time at the door. Hearing the voice of Macarius, he cried out for joy and called his son through the window, asking him to come out so that he could hug him. But Macarius, afraid to be touched, refused to come out. Then the father, weeping, said: “I will not leave the cell until I see your face and at least talk to you a little.”
Macarius did not succumb to persuasion and did not leave the cell. “My dear child,” the father pleaded, “at least stretch out your hand to me.” Macarius extended his hand through the window, and his father, grasping it, said: “My beloved son, save your soul, pray for us sinners, so that we, through your prayers, will see the Kingdom of Heaven.”
After that, saying goodbye to his son, he left the monastery and went home; He told his wife about everything, and together they rejoiced and glorified God for having given them an ascetic son.
Macarius continued to work in the monastery. Soon he surpassed all the monks living there and gained universal honor and respect. Burdened by this, Macarius decided to leave the monastery and settle in a deserted place. Just as before his parents' house, he left the monastery: having prayed, he relied on God's providence and went wherever his eyes looked.
He walked for a long time through swamps and forests, until he came to a river called Lug, and, having chosen a place, he built a hut. Here he began to live alone in silence and prayer.
But he did not succeed in hiding from people for a long time: soon the inhabitants of the surrounding villages and cities found out about Macarius and began to come to him for guidance and spiritual help, and some, who wanted to leave the world, eventually settled next to him. When enough brethren gathered, a monastery was formed, and a little time later they began to build a temple in the name of the Theophany of our Lord Jesus Christ and completed it largely thanks to the efforts reverend father Macarius.
Several years passed, and, as before, honor became a burden to the saint, besides, the laity, in multitudes who came to him for advice, broke his silence; not enduring such a life, the monk appointed one of the brethren as abbot and secretly left the monastery from everyone. Again he wandered through the forests. The place where he stopped was called Yellow Waters and was located on the eastern bank of the Volga, next to a small lake. This area really liked Macarius. Here he lived in a small cell, working alone and praying unceasingly to God.
But soon his seclusion was violated - this time by the Gentiles living in Zhovti Vody - the Chuvash and Mordovians. Arriving at the cell of the monk and seeing his modest and non-possessive life, at first they were very surprised. Then they began to bring bread, honey, wheat to the elder, and each time they were touched by his gentleness and patience; Macarius accepted their gifts with gratitude - but not for himself, but for his visitors. He baptized many in the lake, which was almost at his very cell. By that time, not only the Chuvash and Mordovians came to him: the people flocked, wanting to hear instructions and learn a charitable life, some settled nearby. The monk, remembering the words of the Lord - "He who comes to Me I will not cast out," - did not forbid them to settle, seeing their good will and diligence. So around the Monk Macarius a new, already second in a row, monastic monastery was formed, and in 1435, under his leadership, a temple was erected in the name of Life-Giving Trinity. Even earlier, Macarius was elected rector, and he rector for a long time, constantly caring for the brethren and instructing them in monastic labors, and the number of monks increased every day, as the fame of the Monk Macarius and his monastery spread throughout Russia and many came from distant lands and asked to be tonsured to the monastic rank.
One of these was blessed Gregory, called Pelshemsky; leaving his parents, he came to Zhovtiye Vody, became a monk and, following the example of Macarius, who was both his rector and father, became a great prayer book and faster, and later he was honored with the priesthood, which confirmed the proverb: “A good father has good children, but a skillful teacher and students are skillful.
The name of Macarius became known not only among the common people, but also among the princes, who sent everything they needed from their estates to the monastery. The monastery was famous for its appearance, the strength of the walls, the solidity of the buildings, but most of all, the righteousness and zeal of the monks, who imitated the abbot with a charitable life. But soon the peace and prosperity of the monastery were violated.
During the reign of the noble prince Vasily Vasilyevich, one of the Tatar military leaders named Uluakhmet, expelled by his compatriots from the Golden Horde, approached Russian borders and settled in Kazan. From there, he made raids on neighboring principalities, moving further and further across Russian soil. So he reached Nizhny Novgorod, then his army scattered, devastating Christian villages with fire and sword.
They appeared at the Yellow Waters and attacked the monastery of St. Macarius. The monks did not defend themselves for long, the Tatars broke into the monastery and mowed them down like ears of corn in a field, only a few were taken prisoner, and the monastery was burned.
Elder Macarius was also in captivity. They brought him to the Tatar commander. And the name of the monk was well known among them, because he and the Tatars who came to him, always graciously received and laid to rest. When the governor found out what kind of person was standing in front of him, he became angry: “How dare you,” he said to his soldiers, “knowing the holy life of this elder, outrage over him and his monastery?
Do you know that people like him will have to answer to God, Who is one for them and for us!” And he ordered to release the saint, and with him other captives - several monks and laity, numbering about four hundred people, not counting women, children and the elderly.
At parting, the commander said to Macarius: "Leave these places without delay and never return here again, since this land will henceforth belong to the Kazan Khanate."
The monk asked permission to bury his monks. “Here is a man of God,” said the commander, “he cares not only for the living, but also for the dead.” And he allowed him to take the dead.
The saint went to the monastery, from which only ashes remained. Seeing the corpses of the brethren lying everywhere, Macarius wept; then, after singing the prescribed prayers, he buried them according to custom and began to consult with the people who were with him where they should go. We decided to go to the city of Galich. It was not less than four hundred miles to go there, but after praying to God, we set off.
It was June. They walked for many days; fearing the Tatars, they made their way through impenetrable forests and swamps. Soon food supplies ran out, everyone was exhausted and tired, sorrows began.
Just then they met an elk in the forest, they drove it and were going to kill it. They asked for blessings from the Monk Macarius. And there was Petrov fast and there were three days left before the holiday. The elder ordered the elk to be released, having cut off its ear before that, and said: “Have faith, and the providence of God will not leave us: on the day the fast ends, we will meet this elk again, and then we will eat it for the glory of God. In the meantime, I ask you to endure these three days, and the Lord will save us from death according to our faith.
And so it happened: on the day of the feast of the holy chief apostles Peter and Paul, when people were completely exhausted, through the prayer of the elder, that same elk with a cut off ear came out to them. They took him with their bare hands and brought him to the Monk Macarius, who blessed the elk for food.
Having had their fill, everyone thanked God, and Macarius said: "From now on, you will not lack food according to your faith." And indeed, all the way they came across either an elk, or a deer, or some other animal. So they came to the city of Unzhensk.
It was an old Russian city on the banks of the Unzha River. The town at that time was very small and surrounded by rare villages. When the monk came here, all the inhabitants greeted him with joy: they had heard about the holiness of the elder and were ready to immediately render him all kinds of honors. But Macarius wanted only silence and loneliness, he immediately began to ask about a deserted place where he could settle. He was shown a place fifteen miles from the city, not far from the river, on the shore of a forest lake. There, in a clearing, the monk set up a cross, built a cell nearby. This was in 1439, and a little time later, by the grace of God, the monastery was again formed. And so Macarius lived, according to his custom, serving God day and night with prayers and fasting labors, and, moreover, with the gift of healing, which he received in last years life.
Five years later, the monk felt the approach of death. By that time he was ninety-five years old, eighty of them he lived as a monk.
Knowing when and how he would die, Macarius came to Unzhensk and took to his bed there. Before his death, he commanded that his body be taken to the monastery he created and buried there. After that, having prayed and blessed all who were with him, he quietly departed to the Lord. This happened on July 25, 1444.
On that day, the city and its environs were filled with a wonderful fragrance emanating, as it were, from myrrh and incense, and all the people - in houses, on the streets, and wherever they happened to be - inhaled the aroma and hurried to fall to the body of the reverend.
All the people wept. The body of the elder with candles and censers, with the singing of psalms, was taken to the monastery, where they were buried. All the sick and crippled who fell to his relics were healed.
Miracles continued many years later, and they manifested themselves not only in the healing of the sick, but also in help and protection from visible and invisible enemies, from devilish machinations and from Tatar captivity.
In 1522, during the reign of Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich, there was a terrible invasion of the Tatars on Unzhensk. There were over twenty thousand enemies, and the town was small and the inhabitants were inexperienced in military affairs. They had one hope - in God and in the Monk Macarius of Zheltovodsky, to whose help they more than once resorted to in such cases. Strengthened by this hope, they fought back for three days and three nights from the enemy besieging the city.
Their chief was a certain voivode Fedor. At the sight of the attackers, he fell into confusion, but, having learned from the inhabitants that the holy elder Macarius Zheltovodsky always defended them from the Tatars, Fedor went to church, fell on his knees in front of the icon of the monk and began to pray with tears, asking to take the trouble away from Unzhensk and deliver people from death and captivity.
Meanwhile, the Tatars again went on the attack and set fire to the city from all sides. Confusion gripped the people: the fire was blazing, and the Tatars were crowding - all as one begged Macarius for intercession.
Suddenly it began to rain, soon it turned into a downpour, and there was a flood. The water flooded the streets and houses, it seemed that the whole city swam, and the fire subsided.
Now the Tatars were in turmoil: one part went to another, and they began to fight. The townspeople from the walls saw how the Tatars attacked their own, and realized that the Monk Macarius had saved Unzhensk; many saw the old man standing on a cloud and pouring water over the city from a huge tub. They immediately opened the gates, rushed to the Tatars and killed most of them. Those taken prisoner said that they saw a monk standing in the air above the city and firing at them; then he ran into their army on a big white horse, and they, mad with fear, began to cut each other with swords, thinking that they were fighting with the Russians.
Then the monk delivered the monastery from the Tatars, in which he was buried. It happened like this: when the Tatars attacked Unzhensk, a detachment of three hundred soldiers rushed to the monastery in the hope of rich and easy prey. But as soon as they approached the monastery, they all went blind. Seeing nothing, they fled in horror in different directions, many fell into the river and drowned.
In 1535, through the prayers of Macarius Zheltovodsky, the city of Soligalich was saved from the Tatars, and the grateful inhabitants set up a chapel in honor of the reverend in the cathedral church.
During the invasion of the Poles, the inhabitants of Yuryevets, Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod resorted to the intercession of St. Macarius and received help. Tsar Michael himself vowed to go on foot to Unzhensk if his father Filaret was released from Polish captivity, and, having received what he asked, he fulfilled his promise.
Many cases of the miraculous help of St. Macarius are known.
When the Kazan Tatars laid siege to Unzhensk, a young woman named Maria was taken prisoner. She was tied with a rope and taken away with other prisoners. They walked for three days. Maria, fearing to be dishonored, could not drink or eat all the way, she only prayed and cried. So, day and night, shedding tears, she prayed to the Lord and the Most Holy Theotokos. She called for help and the holy representative, the Monk Macarius of Zheltovodsky. When they made another halt, Maria collapsed to the ground and, bound, fell into a deep sleep. It was in the steppe. It was a dead night. Toward morning, the Monk Macarius appeared to the sleeping woman. He stood at the head of the bed and, touching her with his hand against her heart, said: "Don't grieve, but get up and go home." But Mary could not wake up from the dream. Then the saint took her by the hand, helped her to stand up and said: "Get up and follow me." Maria woke up and, seeing the monk no longer in a dream, but in reality, she recognized him by the icon she had seen and followed him. It began to get light. The monk disappeared, and Mary was left alone in a deserted place. She became scared.
When it was completely dawn, Maria saw that she was standing on the road leading to Unzhensk, and the city itself was visible not far away. Maria ran and soon found herself in front of the city gates. They were locked up. Maria began knocking and asking to be opened. "Who are you?" - asked the watchman. She answered, then the guards, recognizing her, let her into the city, where she found all her loved ones and told how Macarius Zheltovodsky saved her.
Once the governor Ivan Vyrodkov was seriously wounded. Meanwhile, the prince ordered him to go against the Tatars again. Despite the illness and the persuasion of relatives, the voivode was going to fulfill the command, and since he could not walk, he ordered to be carried in a wagon. On the way they brought him to the Makariev monastery. Here the governor mentally prayed to the saint, asking for help. Seeing a vessel with water, Ivan asked for a drink and drank without stopping. To the amazement of the monks, he drank a lot of water, after which he felt completely healthy. The water turned out to be from a well dug by the Monk Macarius, and it was unusually sweet and tasty.
One resident of the city of Unzhensk drank heavily and always beat his wife when drunk. Unable to endure bullying, the wife decided to drown herself in the well. But since she was pious, she helped the poor and the needy as much as she could, and had faith in the Monk Macarius, he did not allow her to destroy her soul. When the woman approached the well, she suddenly noticed that an old man was standing near the log house, and backed away in fear. The elder said: “Get away from the well and don’t
do what you have planned, otherwise terrible torments will befall you in eternal life.
The woman in confusion threw herself at the feet of the old man, and when she got up, he was gone. Then she returned to the house and since then has never thought about suicide. At the same time, her husband left his drunken life and repented.
Local veneration of the memory of St. Macarius Zheltovodsky began soon after his death. In 1610, Patriarch Filaret ordered to investigate cases of healing through the prayers of St. Macarius. More than fifty cases have been witnessed. At the same time, the name of the Monk Macarius of Zheltovodsky was entered in the calendar and a universal celebration of his memory was appointed on July 25/August 7.
The relics of the monk rest in the Makarievo-Unzhensky Trinity Monastery near the city of Makariev near Kostroma, in the Holy Trinity Cathedral, built in 1669 by hegumen Mitrofan, the future saint of Voronezh. There is also a cell icon of Smolenskaya Mother of God, which belonged to the Monk Macarius. Behind the monastery, on a hillock, a well, dug by his hands, has been preserved in the chapel.
Saint Macarius of Egypt was born around the year 301 in Egypt. The father of the monk was a presbyter and was called Abraham, while his mother was called Sarah. Since the marriage of Macarius' parents was barren, they agreed to live in spiritual cohabitation, and not carnal, decorating their lives with many virtues. At that time, barbarians attacked Egypt, who plundered all the property of the inhabitants of Egypt, including Abraham and Sarah. Once, when Father Macarius was sleeping, the holy patriarch Abraham appeared to him in a dream, who began to console him in misfortune and at the same time predicted that God would soon bless him with the birth of a son. It was then that Macarius' parents moved to the village of Ptinapor in Lower Egypt. After some time, Presbyter Abraham became very ill. But in a dream, an angel appeared to him, who said: “God had mercy on you, Abraham. He heals you of sickness and grants you His favor, for your wife Sarah will give birth to a son named blessedness. He will be the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, living on earth in the form of an angel, and will lead many to God.” Soon after this, Sarah conceived in her old age, and after a certain time, a son was born to her, who was named Macarius, which means “blessed”.
When the youth Macarius reached the age of maturity and learned to understand Holy Scripture, then he wanted to lead a monastic life. But the parents, forgetting about the prophecy, persuaded him to enter into marriage. Macarius obeyed, but after the wedding he did not touch his bride. A few days later it happened to one of the relatives of Macarius to go to the Nitrian mountain. Macarius went with him. The Nitrian Desert bordered Libya and Ethiopia and got its name from the neighboring mountain, where there was a lot of nitra, or saltpeter, in the lakes. In Nitria, in a dream vision, a wondrous man appeared before the saint, shining with light, who said: “Macarius! Look carefully at these desert places, for you are destined to settle here.” Awakening from his sleep, Macarius began to think about what had been said to him in the vision. At that time, no one had yet settled in the desert, except for Anthony the Great and the unknown hermit Paul of Thebes.
Immediately upon the return of the blessed one, his wife died, having departed undefiled into eternal life. Macarius thanked God, thinking at the same time: “Pay attention to yourself, Macarius, and take care of your soul, for you too will soon have to leave this earthly life". And from that time on, Macarius no longer cared about anything earthly, constantly staying in the temple of the Lord and reading the Holy Scriptures. Meanwhile, Abraham, the father of Macarius, lost his sight due to old age and illness. Blessed Macarius looked after his father with love and diligence. Soon the elder went to the Lord, and six months later, Sarah, the mother of Macarius, also died. The Monk Macarius buried his parents, and then distributed all his property in remembrance of the souls of the deceased.
Thus freed from all worldly concerns, Macarius came to an experienced elder, who lovingly received the humble young man, showed him the beginnings of a silent monastic life and taught him the usual monastic needlework - weaving baskets. He also arranged for Macarius a separate cell not far from his own. Some time later, the bishop of that country came to the village of Ptinapor and, having learned from the inhabitants of the village about the exploits of blessed Macarius, called him to himself, appointing him as a clergyman of the local church, although Macarius was still young. But Saint Macarius, burdened by the position of a cleric, left and settled in a deserted place. A reverent man came to him here and began to serve Macarius.
The devil, who hated all goodness, seeing how he was defeated by the young monk, began to fight intensely with him, plotting various intrigues: sometimes instilling in him sinful thoughts, sometimes attacking him in the form of various monsters. When Macarius was awake at night, standing at prayer, the devil shook his cell to the very foundations, and sometimes, turning into a snake, crawled along the ground and rushed furiously at the saint. But blessed Macarius, guarding himself with prayer and the sign of the cross, considered all these intrigues for nothing. Then the devil taught one woman to slander Macarius that he allegedly dishonored her. Relatives, believing her, beat the blessed one half to death, and then demanded that he now support their daughter. Having recovered, the blessed one began to make baskets and sent the money from their sale to feed the woman. When the time came for her to give birth, the righteous judgment of God overtook her. For a very long time she could not be relieved of the burden, sobbing bitterly from severe pain, until she confessed to slander. Hearing that the hermit was innocent of her disgrace, the inhabitants weepingly tried to fall at his feet, asking for forgiveness, so that the wrath of God would not comprehend them, but Macarius did not want glory from people and hastily retired to the Nitrian mountain, where he once had a vision in a dream.
After living there for three years in one cave, he went to Anthony the Great, for he had long wanted to see him. Received with love by the Monk Anthony, Macarius became his disciple and lived with him for a long time, receiving instructions and trying to imitate his father in everything. Then, on the advice of St. Anthony, Macarius withdrew to a solitary life in Skete. The Skete desert was a day's journey (25-30 versts) from the Nitrian mountain, in the northwestern part of Egypt. It was a waterless rocky desert, a favorite place of the Egyptian hermits. Here Macarius shone so brightly with exploits and succeeded so much in monastic life that he surpassed many of the brethren and received from them the name “old man”. Macarius had to fight demons both day and night. Sometimes the demons, obviously, having turned into various monsters, rushed at the saint, sometimes they raised an invisible battle against the saint, inspiring him with various passionate and impure thoughts. However, they could not overcome this courageous fighter of truth.
It happened somehow that Macarius gathered in the desert a lot of palm branches for weaving baskets and carried them to his cell. On the way he was met by a devil with a sickle and wanted to hit the saint, but could not. Then he said to Macarius: “Macarius! Because of you, I suffer great sorrow, because I am not able to defeat you. Here I am, everything you do, I do. You fast, and I don't eat anything at all; you are awake - and I never sleep. However, there is one thing in which you are superior to me. This is humility. That's why I can't fight you."
When the Monk Macarius was 40 years old, he received from God the gifts of miracles, prophecy, and power over unclean spirits. At the same time, he was ordained a priest and made rector (abba) of the monks living in Skete. About the exploits of Saint Macarius, this heavenly man, whom everyone called the Great, various legends circulated among the fathers. It is said that the monk constantly ascended with his mind to the heavenly and most of his time directed his mind to God, rather than to the objects of this world.
Macarius often visited the teacher of his Anthony the Great, conducting spiritual conversations with him. Together with two other disciples of the Monk Anthony and Macarius, he was honored to be present at his blessed death, and, as a kind of rich inheritance, he received Anthony's staff. Together with this staff of Anthony, the Monk Macarius received the purely spirit of Anthony the Great, as the prophet Elisha once perceived such after Elijah the Prophet. By the power of this spirit, Macarius created many marvelous miracles. So, he destroyed the machinations of sorcerers, returning people to their original appearance after the evil eye and magical transformations, healed incurable diseases with prayers and holy oil, cast out demons many times. The Monk Macarius received from God such grace-filled power that he could even resurrect the dead. With this gift, he shamed heretics, restored the truth in complicated cases related to murders and unpaid debts.
In the prologue about the Monk Macarius, the following is also told. One day he was on his way and, when night overtook him, he entered a pagan cemetery to spend the night there. Finding there an old bone of a dead pagan, the monk laid it at his head. The demons, seeing such boldness of Macarius, took up arms against him and, wanting to frighten him, began to shout, calling the bone female name: "Go wash in the bath." The demon who was in this dead bone answered this call: "I have a wanderer over me." The monk was not afraid of demonic wiles, but boldly began to beat the bone he had taken, saying: “Get up and go if you can.” The demons were put to shame.
On another occasion, the Monk Macarius was walking through the desert and found a dried-up human skull on the ground. Macarius asked the skull: “Who are you?” - “I was the head of the pagan priests who lived in this place. When you, Abba Macarius, filled with the Spirit of God, having mercy on those who are in torment in hell, pray for us, then we receive some relief.” - “What relief do you get and what are your torments?” - “How far the sky is from the earth,” answered the skull with a groan, “so great is the fire in the midst of which we are, scorched from everywhere from head to toe. However, we cannot see each other's faces. When you pray for us, we see a little of each other, and this serves as some consolation to us.” Hearing such an answer, the monk shed tears and said: “Cursed is the day when a person transgressed the Divine commandments.” And again he asked: “Is there any other torment that is more severe than yours?” “We, who did not know God,” answered the skull, “although a little, we still feel the mercy of God. Those who knew the name of God, but rejected Him and did not keep His commandments, are tormented below us by much more difficult and cruel torments. After this, the Monk Macarius took that skull, buried it in the ground, and withdrew.
Many came to Saint Macarius different people even from distant countries. Some asked for his prayers, blessings and fatherly guidance, others for healing from their ailments. Because of this crowd, Macarius now had little time to indulge in meditation in solitude. Therefore, he dug a deep cave under his cell, where he hid for prayer. His monastery, according to Rufinus, was lower, in another desert; there were many brothers in him.
Once Macarius was sitting on the road leading to the monastery. Suddenly he sees the devil walking in human form, dressed in shaggy clothes and all hung with pumpkins. Macarius asked: "Where are you going, breathing malice?" - "I'm going to tempt the brethren." - “Why did you put pumpkins on yourself?” - “I bring food to the brethren.” - “Are there food in all pumpkins? the reverend asked. "In all. If someone does not like one, I will suggest another, third, etc., so that everyone can try at least one.” Having said this, the devil departed. The Reverend remained on the road. Seeing that the devil was returning, Macarius again asked: “Did you go to the monastery well?” - “Bad,” the devil replied, “and how could I succeed? All the monks took up arms against me, and no one accepted me.” “Don’t you have a single monk who would obey you?” Macarius asked again. “I have only one,” answered the devil. - When I come to him, he spins around me like a top. - "What is his name?" - “Pheopempt!” Then Abba Macarius went into the far desert to the named monastery. The brethren, hearing that the saint was coming towards them, came out to meet him with palm branches, and each of them prepared his cell, thinking that the monk would want to stay with him. But Macarius the Great asked the monks who Theopemptus was, and went in to him. He received the monk with great joy. Left alone with Theopemptos, Saint Macarius questioned him with wisdom and learned that he was possessed by the spirit of fornication and other sins. Having given the monk soul-beneficial instructions, the blessed one returned to his wilderness. There, sitting by the road, he again saw the devil going to the monastery, and he confessed that now all the monks were turning against him.
Once, when Saint Macarius was praying, there was a voice to him that said: “Macarius! You have not yet reached such perfection in a virtuous life as two women living together in a nearby city. Having received such a revelation, the monk took his staff and went to that city. Finding there the house where the aforementioned women lived, he called both of them to him and said to them: “For your sake, I undertook such a great feat, having come here from the far desert, for I want to know your good deeds, about which I ask you to tell me hiding nothing.” “Believe us, honest father,” answered the women, “that we shared our bed with our husbands last night. What virtues do you wish to find in us?” But the monk insisted that they tell him the way of their life. Then, the women said: “We were not relatives among ourselves before, but then we married two siblings, and for 15 years now we have all been living in the same house; during the entire time of our life together we did not say a single malicious or bad word to each other and never quarreled among ourselves. We have recently decided to leave our carnal spouses and retire to the host of holy virgins who serve God. However, there is no way we can beg our husbands to let us go. Then we made a covenant with God and among ourselves not to utter a single worldly word until our death.” After listening to their story, the Monk Macarius said: “Truly, God is not looking for a virgin, or a married woman, or a monk, or a layman, but a free intention, accepting it as the very thing, and gives to the voluntary will of every person the grace of the Holy Spirit acting in a person. and directing the life of everyone who wants to be saved.”
During the life of Macarius the Great, also called the Egyptian, another Saint Macarius, the Alexandrian, shone with holiness. He was a presbyter in a monastery that bore the name of Cell. This area was in the desert between Nitria and Skete. The ascetics of the Nitrian mountain retired to the desert of Kelia after they had already established themselves in the monastic life. Here they practiced silence, and their cells were far removed from each other. This blessed Macarius of Alexandria often came to the Monk Macarius of Egypt, and they often walked together in the wilderness. When the Arian emperor Valens reigned, he raised a very cruel persecution of the Orthodox. Lucius, the Arian bishop, arrived in Alexandria by royal order, and deposed from the episcopal chair St. Peter, the successor of St. Athanasius the Great. He also sent soldiers into the desert to capture and send into exile all the desert fathers. Among the first, both Saint Macarius were captured and taken to a remote island, whose inhabitants worshiped idols. One of the priests who were on that island had a daughter possessed by a demon, and the monks, having prayed, cast him out and healed the girl. Her father immediately believed in Christ and received holy baptism. Likewise, all the inhabitants of that island turned to Christ. Upon learning of what had happened, the wicked Bishop Lucius was greatly ashamed that he had expelled such great fathers. Therefore, he secretly sent to return the blessed Macarius and all the holy fathers who were with them to their former dwelling places.
Meanwhile, many people came to St. Macarius the Great from everywhere, so it became necessary to build a hotel for wanderers and the sick. This is what the saint did. Every day he usually healed one sick person, anointing him with holy oil and sending him home completely healthy. The monk did this so that other sick people, who were not immediately healed by him, lived with him for some time and thus received healing not only of the body, but also of the soul, listening at that time to his divinely inspired teachings.
Once the Monk Macarius went from Skete to the Nitrian mountain with one of his disciples. When they were already approaching the mountain, the monk said to the disciple: “Go ahead of me.” The disciple went and met a pagan priest who was carrying a large log. Seeing him, the monk shouted: “Listen, you demon! Where are you going?" The priest beat the monk so hard that he barely survived. Grabbing then a log that had been thrown, the priest ran away. Soon he met the Monk Macarius, who lovingly said: "Save yourself, hard worker, save yourself." The priest stopped and asked: “What good did you see in me, greeting me with such words?” - “I see that you are working,” answered the monk. Then the priest said: “Father, I was touched by your words. I see that you are a man of God. Here, before you, another monk met me, who scolded me, and I beat him to death. And with these words, the priest fell at the feet of the monk, embracing them and saying: “I will not leave you, father, until you convert me to Christianity and make me a monk.” And he went along with Saint Macarius. After walking a little, they came to the place where the monk, beaten by the priest, was lying and found him barely alive. Taking it, they brought it to the church. The fathers, seeing together with the Monk Macarius a pagan priest, were greatly astonished. Then, having baptized him, they also made him a monk, and for his sake many pagans converted to Christianity. Saint Macarius gave the following instruction on this occasion: “An evil word makes the good ones evil, but a good word makes the bad ones good.”
Once the Monk Macarius came to the monastery of Abba Pamvo. Here the elders asked the blessed one to give a word for the edification of the brethren. Saint Macarius began to say: “Forgive me, for I am a bad monk; but I saw monks. So one day I was sitting in Skete in my cell, and the thought came to me to go to the inner desert. Five years later I went there and found a huge swamp, in the middle of which I saw an island. At this time, animals came to drink water. Among the animals, I noticed two naked people and thought that I saw incorporeal spirits. Seeing that I was very frightened, the people reassured me and said that they were from kinovia, but it had been thirty years since they had left the monastery. One of them was an Egyptian, the other a Libyan. Then they also asked me in what state the world is now, whether the rivers are still filled with their streams, whether the earth abounds with its usual fruits. I answered them: "Yes." Then he asked them how I could become a monk. They answered me: "Unless a person renounces everything that is in the world, he cannot be a monk." To this I said: "I am weak and therefore cannot be like you." “If you cannot be like us,” they said, “then sit in your cell and repent of your sins.” Again I asked them if they suffered from the cold in winter and from the scorching heat in summer. They answered me: “The Lord God gave us such bodies that we do not suffer from frost in winter, nor from heat in summer.” “That is why I told you brethren,” St. Macarius finished his speech, “that I have not yet become a monk, but I have seen monks.”
Once the Monk Macarius was asked by the Skete Fathers how he managed to keep his body always thin? The Monk Macarius gave the following answer: “Just as a poker, with which burning wood and brushwood is turned over in a furnace, is always scorched by fire, so in a person who always directs his mind to the Lord and always keeps in mind the terrible torment in the fire of Gehenna, this fear not only consumes body, but also dries out the bones.”
Then the brethren asked the monk about prayer. He gave them this instruction: “Prayer does not require verbosity, but you need to lift up your hands, saying: Lord! as You wish and as You Yourself know, have mercy on me. If the enemy raises sinful warfare in the soul, it is only necessary to say: Lord, have mercy. The Lord knows what is good for us and will show us mercy.”
Another time, Abba Isaiah asked the monk: “Tell me, father, some instruction for the benefit of the soul.” “Run away from people,” Saint Macarius answered him. “That is, sit in your cell and repent of your sins.” To his disciple Paphnutius the Great, he said: “Do not offend anyone, do not slander anyone - by doing this, you will be saved.” The saint also said: “If you wish to be saved, be like a dead man: do not be angry when you are dishonored, do not be haughty when you are praised. By doing so, you will be saved.” To the elders who lived on Mount Nitria, the monk said: “Brethren! let us weep, and let tears flow from our eyes, purifying us before we go to the place where tears burn our bodies in torment.”
One day Saint Macarius found a thief in his cell. Outside, near the cell, a donkey was tied, on which the thief laid the stolen things. The monk, seeing this, did not make it clear to the thief that he was a householder, and even himself began to help him take things and put them on the donkey. Then he let him go peacefully, thinking like this: “We didn’t bring anything with us into this world, we can’t take anything away from here. The Lord has given us everything, and as He wishes, so everything happens. May God be blessed in everything!”
About the same Saint Macarius, the fathers told that he became, as it were, earthly god for, just as God, although he sees the whole world, does not punish sinners, so St. Macarius covered the human infirmities that he saw. It happened that even being far from his children, he appeared to them during demonic temptations and miraculously helped to avoid falls. The prayer of Macarius the Great with God had such power. Once the monk himself, being very tired, prayed fervently and was transferred through a great distance to where he needed to go.
It is now time to tell about the blessed death of Macarius of Egypt, which Serapion, the scribe of his life, told us about. The time of death did not remain unknown to the monk. Shortly before his repose, Saints Anthony the Great and Pachomius the Great appeared to him in a vision. Those who appeared told the saint that on the ninth day he would depart into blessed eternal life. Then the divine Macarius called his disciples and said to them: “Children! the time has come for my departure from here, and I entrust you with the goodness of God. So, keep the statutes of the fathers and the traditions of the fasting.” After laying his hands on his disciples, teaching them enough and praying for them, the monk began to prepare for his death. When the ninth day came, Cherubim appeared to Saint Macarius with many angels and with the saints and took him immortal soul to heavenly places.
Serapion, who describes the life of Saint Macarius, heard from the Monk Paphnutius, one of the disciples of the saint, that when the soul of Macarius ascended to heaven, some of the fathers saw with their mental eyes that airborne demons stood in the distance and shouted: “Oh, what glory you have been granted, Macarius! ” The saint answered: “I am afraid, because I do not know anything good that I would do.” Then those of the demons that were even higher along the path of the soul of Macarius who followed, yelled: “You really escaped our hands, Macarius!” But he said: "No, but you must also avoid it." And when the monk was already at the gates of paradise, the demons exclaimed: "He escaped us, he escaped." Then Macarius loudly answered the demons: “Yes! Protected by the power of my Christ, I escaped your wiles.” Such is the life, death and transition into eternal life of our reverend father Macarius of Egypt.
Saint Macarius the Great died about the year 391 at the age of 90. The place of his exploits is still called the Macarius desert. The relics of the saint are in the city of Amalfi in Italy. The precious heritage of the experienced wisdom of St. Macarius, which has come down to us, is 50 Words, 7 Instructions and 2 Epistles, as well as several exalted prayers. The subjects of conversations and instructions of St. Macarius are the grace of God and the inner spiritual life, as it is accomplished on the path of contemplative solitude. Despite the deep subject matter, the conversations and instructions of the spirit-bearing teacher are simple and intelligible to the mind and close to the reverent heart.
Venerable Macarius the Great, Egyptian, was born in the village of Ptinapor, in Lower Egypt. At the request of his parents, he married, but soon became a widow. After burying his wife, Macarius said to himself: "Take heed, Macarius, and take care of your soul, for you too will have to leave earthly life." The Lord rewarded his saint with a long life, but the memory of death has been with him ever since, forcing him to labors of prayer and repentance. He began to visit the temple of God more often and delve into the Holy Scriptures, but he did not leave his elderly parents, fulfilling the commandment to honor parents.
After the death of his parents, the Monk Macarius ("Macarius" - from Greek means blessed) gave away the remaining estate in remembrance of his parents and began to pray earnestly that the Lord would show him a mentor on the path of salvation. The Lord sent him such a leader in the person of an experienced old monk who lived in the desert, not far from the village. The elder received the young man with love, instructed him in the spiritual science of vigil, fasting and prayer, and taught him needlework - weaving baskets. Having built a separate cell not far from his own, the elder placed his disciple in it.
Once a local bishop arrived in Ptinapor and, having learned about the virtuous life of the monk, appointed, against his will, a cleric of the local church. However, the blessed Macarius was weary of breaking the silence, and therefore he secretly went to another place. The enemy of salvation began a stubborn struggle with the ascetic, trying to frighten him, shaking his cell and suggesting sinful thoughts. Blessed Macarius repulsed the attacks of the demon, guarding himself with prayer and the sign of the cross. Evil people they raised up a scolding against the saint, slandering the girls from the nearby village in the seduction. They pulled him out of his cell, beat him, mocked him. Saint Macarius bore the temptation with great humility. He resignedly sent the money received for his baskets to feed the girl. The innocence of blessed Macarius was revealed when the maiden, having suffered for many days, could not give birth. Then she confessed in agony that she had slandered the hermit, and pointed out the real culprit of the sin.
When her parents learned the truth, they were amazed and intended to go to the blessed one with repentance, but the Monk Macarius, avoiding disturbance from people, retired from those places at night and moved to the Nitrian mountain in the Faran desert. Thus, human malice contributed to the prosperity of the righteous.
After living for three years in the desert, he went to the father of Egyptian monasticism, whom he had heard about while still living in the world, and was burning with the desire to see him. The Monk Abba Anthony lovingly received Blessed Macarius, who became his devoted disciple and follower. The Monk Macarius lived with him for a long time, and then, on the advice of the holy abba, he retired to the Skete desert (in the northwestern part of Egypt) and there he shone so brightly with his exploits that they began to call him "old man", because, having barely reached thirty years of age, he showed himself to be an experienced, mature monk.
Saint Macarius experienced many attacks of demons: once he was carrying palm branches from the desert for weaving baskets, the devil met him on the way and wanted to hit the saint with a sickle, but he could not do this and said: “Macarius, I suffer great sorrow from you, because that I cannot defeat you, you have a weapon with which you repel me, this is your humility." When the saint was 40 years old, he was ordained a priest and appointed rector (abba) of the monks who lived in the Skete desert. During these years, the Monk Macarius often visited Great Anthony, receiving instructions from him in spiritual conversations. Blessed Macarius was honored to be present at the death of the holy abba and inherited his staff, with which he received the purely spiritual power of the Great Anthony, just as the prophet Elisha once received from the prophet Elijah the divine grace along with the mantle that fell from heaven.
Saint Macarius performed many healings, people flocked to him from different places for help, advice, asking for his holy prayers. All this violated the solitude of the saint, so he dug a deep cave under his cell and retired there for prayer and contemplation. The Monk Macarius attained such boldness in walking before God that, through his prayer, the Lord resurrected the dead. Despite such heights of attained God-likeness, he continued to maintain extraordinary humility.
One day the holy abba found a thief in his cell, who was loading his belongings onto a donkey standing by the cell. Without giving the appearance that he was the owner of these things, the monk silently began to help to tie up the load. Having released him in peace, the blessed one said to himself: "We have brought nothing into this world, it is clear that we cannot take anything away from here either. May the Lord be blessed in everything!"
Once the Monk Macarius was walking through the desert and, seeing a skull lying on the ground, he asked him: "Who are you?" The skull replied: "I was the chief pagan priest. When you, abba, pray for those in hell, we get some relief." The monk asked: "What are these torments?" “We are in a great fire,” answered the skull, “and we do not see each other. When you pray, we begin to see each other a little, and this serves us with some consolation.” Hearing such words, the monk shed tears and asked: "Is there any more cruel torment?" The skull answered: "Below, deeper than us, are those who knew the Name of God, but rejected Him and did not keep His commandments. They endure even more severe torments."
Once, while praying, blessed Macarius heard a voice: "Macarius, you have not yet reached such perfection as the two women living in the city." The humble ascetic, taking his staff, went into the city, found a house where women lived, and knocked. The women received him with joy, and the monk said: “For your sake I have come from the far desert and I want to know about your good deeds Tell us about them without hiding anything." The women replied with surprise: "We live with our husbands, we have no virtues." However, the saint continued to insist, and then the women told him: "We married brothers. For all the time of our life together, we did not say a single evil or offensive word to each other and we never quarreled among ourselves. We asked our husbands to let us go convent but they do not agree, and we vowed not to utter a single word of the world until death." The holy ascetic glorified God and said: "Truly, the Lord is not looking for a virgin or a married woman, neither a monk nor a layman, but appreciates the free his will sends the grace of the Holy Spirit, which acts and governs the life of every person who seeks to be saved.
During the years of the reign of the Arian emperor Valens (364-378), Saint Macarius the Great, along with him, was subjected to persecution by the Arian bishop Luke. They seized both elders and put them on a ship and took them to a deserted island where the pagans lived. There, through the prayers of the saints, the daughter of the priest was healed, after which the priest himself and all the inhabitants of the island received holy Baptism. Upon learning of what had happened, the Arian bishop was ashamed and allowed the elders to return to their deserts.
The meekness and humility of the monk transformed human souls. "A bad word," said Abba Macarius, "makes the good ones thin, but a good word makes the bad ones good." To the question of the monks how one should pray, the monk answered: “Prayer does not require many words, you just need to say: “Lord, as You wish and as You know, have mercy on me.” If the enemy attacks you, then you only need to say: "Lord, have mercy!" The Lord knows what is good for us and will show us mercy." When the brethren asked: "How can one become a monk?" renounce everything that is in the world, cannot be a monk." To this I replied: "I am weak and cannot be like you." Then the monks answered: "If you cannot be like us, then sit in your cell and repent of your sins.
Saint Macarius gave advice to one monk: "Run away from people and you will be saved." He asked: "What does it mean to run from people?" The monk answered: "Sit in your cell and repent of your sins." Saint Macarius also said: "If you wish to be saved, be like a dead man who does not get angry when he is dishonored, and does not exalt himself when he is praised." And again: “If for you reproach is like praise, poverty is like wealth, lack is like abundance, you will not die.
The prayer of St. Macarius saved many in dangerous circumstances of life and kept them from troubles and temptations. His mercy was so great that they said about him: "As God covers the world, so Abba Macarius covered the sins that he, seeing, as if he did not see, and hearing, as if he did not hear." The monk lived to be 97 years old, shortly before his death, the Monks Anthony and Pachomius appeared to him, reporting the joyful news of his imminent transition to the blessed Heavenly cloisters. Having given instructions to his disciples and blessed them, the Monk Macarius took leave of everyone and rested with the words: “Into Your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.”
Saint Abba Macarius spent sixty years in a desert that was dead to the world. Most of the time the monk spent in conversation with God, often being in a state of spiritual rapture. But he never stopped crying, repenting and working. The abbot turned his rich ascetic experience into deep theological creations. Fifty conversations and seven ascetic words remained a precious legacy of the spiritual wisdom of St. Macarius the Great.
The idea that the highest good and goal of man is the union of the soul with God is the main one in the works of St. Macarius. Talking about ways to achieve sacred unity, the monk based himself on the experience of the great teachers of Egyptian monasticism and on his own. The path to God and the experience of communion with God by the holy ascetics is open to every believing heart. Therefore, the Holy Church included in the commonly used evening and morning prayers ascetic prayers of St. Macarius the Great.
Earthly life, according to the teachings of St. Macarius, with all its labors, has only a relative significance: to prepare the soul, to make it capable of perceiving the Kingdom of Heaven, to cultivate in the soul an affinity with the Heavenly Fatherland. "The soul that truly believes in Christ must be transferred and changed from the current vicious state to another good state, and from the current lowly nature to another, Divine nature, and be changed into a new one - through the power of the Holy Spirit." This can be achieved if "we truly believe and love God and turn in all His holy commandments." If, however, the soul, betrothed to Christ in holy Baptism, does not itself cooperate with the grace of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon it, then it will be subject to “excommunication from life,” as having turned out to be unseemly and incapable of communion with Christ. In the teaching of St. Macarius, the question of the unity of God's Love and God's Truth is experimentally resolved. The inner achievement of a Christian determines the extent to which he perceives this unity. Each of us acquires salvation by grace and the Divine gift of the Holy Spirit, but to achieve the perfect measure of virtue necessary for the soul to assimilate this Divine gift is possible only "by faith and love with the effort of free will." Then "as much as in grace, so much in righteousness" the Christian inherits eternal life. Salvation is a work of the God-man: we achieve complete spiritual success "not only by Divine power and grace, but also by bringing our own labors", on the other hand, we come to the "measure of freedom and purity" not only by our own diligence, but not without "assistance from above by God's hand ". The fate of a person is determined by the actual state of his soul, his self-determination to good or evil. "If the soul in this world does not yet receive the sanctity of the Spirit for much faith and prayers, and does not become a partaker of the Divine nature, then it is unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven."
The miracles and visions of blessed Macarius are described in the book of presbyter Rufinus, while his life was compiled by the Monk Serapion, Bishop of Tmunt (Lower Egypt), one of the famous figures of the Church of the 4th century.
*Published in Russian:
1. Spiritual conversations / Per. priest Moses Gumilevsky. M., 1782. Ed. 2nd. M., 1839. Ed. 3rd. M., 1851. The same / (2nd lane) // Christian reading. 1821, 1825, 1827, 1829, 1834, 1837, 1846. The same / (3rd lane) // Ed. 4th. Moscow Spiritual Academy. Sergiev Posad, 1904.
2. Ascetic messages / Per. and approx. B. A. Turaeva // Christian East. 1916. Vol. IV. pp. 141-154.
The teaching of St. Macarius is also set forth: Philokalia. T. I. M., 1895. S. 155-276 *.
Iconic original |
|
|
| |
In the old days, the largest fair on the Volga near Nizhny Novgorod was called Makarievskaya. Makaryevsky counties were in two ancient provinces of Nizhny Novgorod and Kostroma. And today this is the name of one of the districts of the Kostroma region. There is the city of Makaryev, the village of Makaryevo, Makaryevskaya Pustyn near Kazan.
Who was this Macarius, who left so many traces of himself in the Volga region? Prince? A pioneer? City builder?
In the middle of the fourteenth century, Nizhny Novgorod experienced a period of growth. It became the center of a large principality. Even then, following Moscow, they wanted to build a Kremlin here, not from wood, but from stone. But the flourishing of the political and economic in Rus' could not be imagined without the flourishing of the spiritual.
Not far from the city, on the high bank of the Volga, the Pechersky Ascension Monastery arose. The founder of the monastery was Dionysius, one of the great monastic mentors of his time, a friend and like-minded person of Sergius of Radonezh. Once, a boy of twelve years old in beggarly rags came to this monastery and asked Dionysius to accept him into the monastic brotherhood.
Servant: Father, be merciful to me and accept my soul for repentance.
Dionysius: Child, believe me: it is hard and painful to bear the yoke of monastic life. You are young and will not be able to bear ascetic labors, resentment from people and misfortune from demons! The Scripture says, "No one who puts his hand on the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."
Dionysius was strict and cautious, but he yielded to the boy's perseverance, and tonsured him a monk with the name Macarius.
The young novice was the son of rich and noble citizens of Nizhny Novgorod. He only pretended to be a beggar in order to escape from the house. Indeed, in the era of Sergius of Radonezh, the ideal was a monk who attained Divine perfection, and Macarius followed his ideal. Later, his parents managed to find him. It cost Macarius a lot of work to prove to them the awareness of his choice. He said goodbye to them and remained faithful to this choice until the end of his days.
Macarius spent many years in the Pechersk monastery. Being in obedience to your spiritual father Dionysius, he went through a good school of spiritual growth and self-restraint. Then Saint Dionysius was appointed Bishop of Suzdal, traveled to Constantinople several times, and was appointed Metropolitan of the entire Russian Church. And his disciple began to seek solitude in dense forests.
Initially, Macarius settled on the Lukh River, but then decided to go away from people's rumors to the left bank of the Volga. The Volga region, covered with forests and inhabited mainly by Finno-Ugric peoples, was perfect place for hermitage. At the lake called Yellow Waters, the monk dug a cave. Gradually, a brotherhood of the same seekers of solitary silence gathered around him. The Zheltovodsky monastery was formed.
Without imposing his faith on anyone, the Monk Macarius earned the respect of the militant Mari, who then inhabited the northern part of the modern Nizhny Novgorod region. The pagans helped him and the brethren, bringing honey and bread to the monastery. So quietly and measuredly life went on at Zhovti Vody until the monastery and its abbot were drawn into the maelstrom of political events.
In the fifteenth century, Nizhny Novgorod was already part of the united Russian state. The once mighty Golden Horde went to sunset and fell apart. One of the Horde khans, Ulu-Muhammad, entrenched himself in Kazan and from there decided to bring Moscow into obedience. The Zheltovodsk monastery was in the way of the Tatar troops. In 1439 the monastery was burnt down, part of the brethren was killed, and the other, led by Macarius, was driven to Kazan.
But the Lord sent help to his saint, from where he did not expect. Khan respectfully treated the captive ascetic, let him go home and allowed him to take with him forty more captive men with their wives and children. Only one condition was set: Macarius should not return to his former place. Then the monk and other liberated people decided to go to the town of Unzha on the river of the same name, which is within the current Kostroma region.
For many weeks, travelers walked through the virgin forests of the Volga region, crossing fast rivers and swampy swamps. When the supplies ran out, there was no one to get bread. Tired of the long journey, people also began to starve. One day the travelers managed to catch an elk. They came to the monk, asking for blessings to eat it. But Macarius forbade it, since Petrov was fasting.
Macarius: Child, please make a mark on the beast and release it. The elk will be yours again when God wants it.
Travelers: But we want to eat, father! We won't go anywhere hungry and we'll die in this forest!
Macarius: Do not grieve, my children! If the Lord wants, he will feed us in this wilderness. Just do not break your fast until the day of the holy apostles
After hesitating, the wanderers acted on the advice of the saint. They endured the whole fast, and on the morning of the day of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, the same elk with a mark was again nearby. Since then, almost every day they had a successful hunt. All alive and well reached Unzha, where the Monk Macarius founded a new monastery.
The Monk Macarius of Zheltovodsky and Unzhensky reposed in the Lord in 1444, almost a hundred years old. But physical death did not prevent the saint from helping his countrymen.
The Moscow-Kazan wars continued for a whole century. The regions where the ascetic lived were a constant scene of hostilities. The inhabitants of Soligalich, besieged by the Tatars, saw the Monk Macarius galloping into battle on a horse, after which confusion began in the ranks of the besiegers. During the siege of Unzha, the Tatar warriors themselves saw the figure of a monk in the sky, who shot at them from a bow and sling, and poured water from a jug on the houses on fire in the city.
Macarius continued to take care of those who were in captivity. To one woman named Maria, the saint appeared at night on the way to Kazan. The very next morning, she miraculously found herself at the gates of her native city.
For many, the saint gave a way out of a hopeless situation. A resident of Unzha named Elena went to drown herself in a well. She was constantly beaten by her drinking husband. At the very edge, she was stopped by a gray-haired old man, who introduced himself as Macarius. The woman was saved from eternal death, and the drunkard husband soon got rid of the disease.
The love of the people for Saint Macarius and faith in his prayers was boundless. The memory of the holy ascetic has passed through the centuries, remaining in the hearts of people and on the map of Russia.
Saint Macarius the Great, of Egypt, was born in the village of Ptinapor, in Lower Egypt. At the request of his parents, he married, but soon became a widow. After burying his wife, Macarius said to himself: "Take heed, Macarius, and take care of your soul, for you too will have to leave earthly life." The Lord rewarded his saint with a long life, but the memory of death has been with him ever since, forcing him to labors of prayer and repentance. He began to visit the temple of God more often and delve into the Holy Scriptures, but he did not leave his elderly parents, fulfilling the commandment to honor parents. After the death of his parents, the Monk Macarius ("Macarius" - from Greek means blessed) gave away the remaining estate in remembrance of his parents and began to pray earnestly that the Lord would show him a mentor on the path of salvation. The Lord sent him such a leader in the person of an experienced old monk who lived in the desert, not far from the village. The elder received the young man with love, instructed him in the spiritual science of vigil, fasting and prayer, and taught him needlework - weaving baskets. Having built a separate cell not far from his own, the elder placed his disciple in it.
Once a local bishop arrived in Ptinapor and, having learned about the virtuous life of the monk, appointed, against his will, a cleric of the local church. However, the blessed Macarius was weary of breaking the silence, and therefore he secretly went to another place. The enemy of salvation began a stubborn struggle with the ascetic, trying to frighten him, shaking his cell and suggesting sinful thoughts. Blessed Macarius repulsed the attacks of the demon, guarding himself with prayer and the sign of the cross. Evil people raised up a scolding against the saint, slandering the girls from the nearby village in the seduction. They pulled him out of his cell, beat him, mocked him. Saint Macarius bore the temptation with great humility. He resignedly sent the money received for his baskets to feed the girl. The innocence of blessed Macarius was revealed when the maiden, having suffered for many days, could not give birth. Then she confessed in agony that she had slandered the hermit, and pointed out the real culprit of the sin. When her parents learned the truth, they were amazed and intended to go to the blessed one with repentance, but the Monk Macarius, avoiding disturbance from people, retired from those places at night and moved to the Nitrian mountain in the Faran desert. Thus, human malice contributed to the prosperity of the righteous. After living three years in the wilderness, he went to Saint Anthony the Great, the father of Egyptian monasticism, whom he had heard about while still living in the world, and was burning with the desire to see him. The Monk Abba Anthony lovingly received Blessed Macarius, who became his devoted disciple and follower. The Monk Macarius lived with him for a long time, and then, on the advice of the holy abba, he retired to the Skete desert (in the northwestern part of Egypt) and there he shone so brightly with his exploits that they began to call him "old man", because, having barely reached thirty years of age, he showed himself to be an experienced, mature monk.
Saint Macarius experienced many attacks of demons: once he was carrying palm branches from the desert for weaving baskets, the devil met him on the way and wanted to hit the saint with a sickle, but he could not do this and said: “Macarius, I suffer great sorrow from you, because that I cannot defeat you, you have a weapon with which you repel me, this is your humility." When the saint was 40 years old, he was ordained a priest and appointed rector (abba) of the monks who lived in the Skete desert. During these years, the Monk Macarius often visited Great Anthony, receiving instructions from him in spiritual conversations. Blessed Macarius was honored to be present at the death of the holy abba and inherited his staff, with which he received the purely spiritual power of the Great Anthony, just as the prophet Elisha once received from the prophet Elijah the divine grace along with the mantle that fell from heaven.
Saint Macarius performed many healings, people flocked to him from different places for help, advice, asking for his holy prayers. All this violated the solitude of the saint, so he dug a deep cave under his cell and retired there for prayer and contemplation. The Monk Macarius attained such boldness in walking before God that, through his prayer, the Lord resurrected the dead. Despite such heights of attained God-likeness, he continued to maintain extraordinary humility. One day the holy abba found a thief in his cell, who was loading his belongings onto a donkey standing by the cell. Without giving the appearance that he was the owner of these things, the monk silently began to help to tie up the load. Having released him in peace, the blessed one said to himself: "We have brought nothing into this world, it is clear that we cannot take anything away from here either. May the Lord be blessed in everything!"
Once the Monk Macarius was walking through the desert and, seeing a skull lying on the ground, he asked him: "Who are you?" The skull replied: "I was the chief pagan priest. When you, abba, pray for those in hell, we get some relief." The monk asked: "What are these torments?" “We are in a great fire,” answered the skull, “and we do not see each other. When you pray, we begin to see each other a little, and this serves as some consolation to us.” Hearing such words, the monk shed tears and asked: "Is there any more cruel torment?" The skull answered: "Below, deeper than us, are those who knew the Name of God, but rejected Him and did not keep His commandments. They endure even more severe torments."
Once, while praying, blessed Macarius heard a voice: "Macarius, you have not yet reached such perfection as the two women living in the city." The humble ascetic, taking his staff, went into the city, found a house where women lived, and knocked. The women received him with joy, and the monk said: "For your sake I have come from a distant desert and I want to know about your good deeds, tell about them without hiding anything." The women answered with surprise: "We live with our husbands, we don't have any virtues." However, the saint continued to insist, and then the women told him: “We married brothers. During the entire time we lived together, we did not say a single evil or offensive word to each other and never quarreled among ourselves. We asked our husbands to let us go to the women’s monastery, but they do not agree, and we made a vow not to utter a single worldly word until death." The holy ascetic glorified God and said: “Truly, the Lord is not looking for a virgin or a married woman, neither a monk nor a layman, but appreciates the free intention of a person and sends the grace of the Holy Spirit to his voluntary will, which acts and governs the life of every person striving to be saved.”
During the reign of the Arian emperor Valens (364-378), Saint Macarius the Great, together with Saint Macarius of Alexandria, was persecuted by the Arian bishop Luke. They seized both elders and put them on a ship and took them to a deserted island where the pagans lived. There. through the prayers of the saints, the daughter of the priest was healed, after which the priest himself and all the inhabitants of the island received holy Baptism. Upon learning of what had happened, the Arian bishop was ashamed and allowed the elders to return to their deserts.
The meekness and humility of the monk transformed human souls. "A bad word," said Abba Macarius, "makes the good ones thin, but a good word makes the bad ones good." To the question of the monks how one should pray, the monk answered: “Prayer does not require many words, you just need to say: “Lord, as You wish and as You know, have mercy on me.” If the enemy attacks you, then you only need to say: "Lord, have mercy!" The Lord knows what is good for us and will show us mercy." When the brethren asked: "How can one become a monk?" renounce everything that is in the world, cannot be a monk." To this I replied: "I am weak and cannot be like you." Then the monks answered: "If you cannot be like us, then sit in your cell and repent of your sins."
Saint Macarius gave advice to one monk: "Run away from people and you will be saved." He asked: "What does it mean to run from people?" The monk answered: "Sit in your cell and repent of your sins." Saint Macarius also said: "If you wish to be saved, be like a dead man who does not get angry when he is dishonored, and does not exalt himself when he is praised." And again: “If for you reproach is like praise, poverty is like wealth, lack is like abundance, you will not die.
The prayer of St. Macarius saved many in dangerous circumstances of life and kept them from troubles and temptations. His mercy was so great that they said about him: "As God covers the world, so Abba Macarius covered the sins that he, seeing, as if he did not see, and hearing, as if he did not hear."
The monk lived to be 97 years old, shortly before his death, the Monks Anthony and Pachomius appeared to him, reporting the joyful news of his imminent transition to the blessed Heavenly cloisters. Having given instructions to his disciples and blessed them, the Monk Macarius took leave of everyone and rested with the words: “Into Your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.”
Saint Abba Macarius spent sixty years in a desert that was dead to the world. Most of the time the monk spent in conversation with God, often being in a state of spiritual rapture. But he never stopped crying, repenting and working. The abbot turned his rich ascetic experience into deep theological creations. Fifty conversations and seven ascetic words remained a precious legacy of the spiritual wisdom of St. Macarius the Great.
The idea that the highest good and goal of man is the union of the soul with God is the main one in the works of St. Macarius. Talking about ways to achieve sacred unity, the monk based himself on the experience of the great teachers of Egyptian monasticism and on his own. The path to God and the experience of communion with God by the holy ascetics is open to every believing heart. That is why the Holy Church included in the commonly used evening and morning prayers the ascetic prayers of St. Macarius the Great.
Earthly life, according to the teachings of St. Macarius, with all its labors, has only a relative significance: to prepare the soul, to make it capable of perceiving the Kingdom of Heaven, to cultivate in the soul an affinity with the Heavenly Fatherland. "The soul that truly believes in Christ must be transferred and changed from the current vicious state to another good state, and from the current lowly nature to another, Divine nature, and be changed into a new one - through the power of the Holy Spirit." This can be achieved if "we truly believe and love God and turn in all His holy commandments." If, however, the soul, betrothed to Christ in holy Baptism, does not itself cooperate with the grace of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon it, then it will be subject to “excommunication from life,” as having turned out to be unseemly and incapable of communion with Christ. In the teaching of St. Macarius, the question of the unity of God's Love and God's Truth is experimentally resolved. The inner achievement of a Christian determines the extent to which he perceives this unity. Each of us acquires salvation by grace and the Divine gift of the Holy Spirit, but to achieve the perfect measure of virtue necessary for the soul to assimilate this Divine gift is possible only "by faith and love with the effort of free will." Then "as much as in grace, so much in righteousness" the Christian inherits eternal life. Salvation is a work of the God-man: we achieve complete spiritual success "not only by Divine power and grace, but also by bringing our own labors", on the other hand, we come to the "measure of freedom and purity" not only by our own diligence, but not without "assistance from above by God's hand ". The fate of a person is determined by the actual state of his soul, his self-determination to good or evil. "If the soul in this world does not yet receive the sanctity of the Spirit for much faith and prayers, and does not become a partaker of the Divine nature, then it is unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven."
The miracles and visions of blessed Macarius are described in the book of presbyter Rufinus, while his life was compiled by the Monk Serapion, Bishop of Tmunt (Lower Egypt), one of the famous figures of the Church of the 4th century.
