Macarius (17). Two hermits or monks of this name both lived in Egypt in the 4th cent.; their characters and deeds are almost indistinguishable. The elder is called the Egyptian, the younger the Alexandrine. One of them was a disciple of Anthony and the master of EVAGRIUS, and one of them dwelt in the Thebaid. Jerome speaks of Rufinus ( Ep. iii. 2, ed. Vall. a.d. 374) as "being at Nitria, and having reached the abode of Macarius." Yet Rufinus, who lived 6 years in Alexandria and the adjoining monasteries, describes the residence of Macarius ( Hist. Mon. 29)—which he names Scithium and says was a day and a half's journey from the monasteries of Nitria—from the accounts of others rather than as an eye-witness. Rufinus, however, seems to have seen both hermits (Apol. Ruf. ii. 12). The stories about them are of a legendary character. Rufinus, Hist. Mon. 28, 29, and Hist. Eccl. ii. 4, 8; Palladius, 19, 20; Soz. iii. 13; Socr. iv. 18; Gennad. d. V. Ill. 11; Martyrolog. Rom. Jan. 5 and 15.
[W.H.F.]
Designed to render to a wider circle, alike of clergy and of laity, the service which, as is generally admitted, has been rendered to the learned world by The Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects, and Doctrines, published under the editorship of Dr. Wace and the late Dr. Wm. Smith, about twenty years ago, in four large volumes.Wikipedia
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