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ST MACARIUS, BISHOP OF JERUSALEM - 10 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH 

Saints celebrated on the 10th of March

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST MACARIUS, BISHOP OF JERUSALEM 

Saint Macarius of Jerusalem was bishop of Jerusalem from  312-34. The date of Macarius’s accession to the episcopate is found in St Jerome’s version of Eusebius’s “Chronicle”. His death must have been before the council at Tyre, in 335, at which his successor, Maximus, was apparently one of the bishops present. 

HE WAS WARNED AGAINST ARIUS THE HERESIARCH

Macarius was one of the bishops to whom St Alexander of Alexandria wrote warning them against Arius. The vigour of his opposition to the new heresy is shown by the abusive manner in which Arius speaks of him in his letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia. 

HE WAS PRESENT AT THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA

He was present at the Council of Nicaea, and two conjectures as to the part he played there are worth mentioning. The first is that there was a passage of arms between him and his metropolitan, Eusebius of Caesarea, concerning the rights of their respective sees. The seventh canon of the council -"As custom and ancient tradition show that the bishop of Aelia [Jerusalem] ought to be honoured, he shall have precedence; without prejudice, however, to the dignity which belongs to the Metropolis" - by its vagueness suggests that it was the result of a drawn battle. The second conjecture is that Macarius, together with Eustathius of Antioch, had a good deal to do with the drafting of the Creed finally adopted by the Council of Nicaea.

HE WAS INVOLVED IN THE DRAFTING OF THE NICENE CREED

From conjectures we may turn to fiction. In the “History of the Council of Nicaea” attributed to Gelasius of Cyzicus there are a number of imaginary disputations between Fathers of the Council and philosophers in the pay of Arius. In one of these disputes where Macarius is spokesman for the bishops he defends the Descent into Hell. This, in view of the question whether the Descent into Hell was found in the Jerusalem Creed, is interesting, especially as in other respects Macarius’s language is made conformable to that Creed. 

VARIOUS DOCUMENTS MENTIONING MACARIUS

Macarius’s name appears first among those of the bishops of Palestine who subscribed to the Council of Nicaeaa; that of Eusebius comes fifth. St Athanasius, in his encyclical letter to the bishops of Egypt and Libya, places the name of Macarius (who had been long dead at that time) among those of bishops renowned for their orthodoxy. 

Sozomen narrates that Macarius appointed Maximus, who afterwards succeeded him, Bishop of Lydia, and that the appointment did not take effect because the people of Jerusalem refused to part with Maximus. He also gives another version of the story, to the effect that Macarius himself changed his mind, fearing that, if Maximus was out of the way, an unorthodox bishop would be appointed to succeed him (Macarius). 

Tillemont discredits this story because Macarius by so acting would have contravened the seventh canon of Nicaea; because Aëtius, who at the time of the council was Bishop of Lydda, was certainly alive in 331, and very probably in 349. Of course, if Aëtius outlived Macarius, the story breaks down; but if he died shortly after 331, it seems plausible enough. The fact that Macarius was then nearing his end would explain the reluctance, whether on his part or that of his flock, to be deprived of Maximus. Tillemont’s first objection carries no weight. The seventh canon was too vague to secure from an orthodox bishop like Macarius very strict views as to the metropolitan rights of a Semi-Arian like Eusebius. 

THE SEARCH FOR THE TRUE CROSS

St Theophanes (died 818) in his “Chronography” makes Constantine, at the end of the Council of Nicaea, order Macarius to search for the sites of the Resurrection and the Passion, and the True Cross. 

It is likely enough that this is what happened, for excavations were begun very soon after the council, and, it would seem under the superintendence of Macarius. The huge mound and stonework with the temple of Venus on the top, which in the time of Hadrian had been piled up over the Holy Sepulchre, were demolished, and “when the original surface of the ground appeared, forthwith, contrary to all expectation, the hallowed monument of our Saviour’s Resurrection was discovered”. 

THE NEW CHURCH ON THE SITE

On hearing the news Constantine wrote to Macarius giving lavish orders for the erection of a church on the site. Later on, he wrote another letter “To Macarius and the rest of the Bishops of Palestine” ordering a church to be built at Mambre, which also had been defiled by a pagan shrine. Eusebius, though he gives the superscription as above, speaks of this letter as “addressed to me”, thinking, perhaps of his metropolitan dignity. Churches were also built on the sites of the Nativity and Ascension.

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)

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