Saint Macarius the Roman was born at the end of the fifteenth
century into a wealthy family of Rome. His parents raised him in piety
and gave him an excellent education. He might have expected a successful
career in public service, but he did not desire honors or earthly
glory. Instead, he focused on how to save his soul.
He lived in an
age when the Christian West was shaken by the Protestant Reformation.
While others around him were pursuing luxury and lascivious pleasures,
he studied the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers. St
Macarius was grieved to see so many darkened by sin and worldly vanity,
and was disturbed by the rebellions and conflicts within the Western
Church. With tears, he asked God to show him the path of salvation, and
his prayer did not go unanswered. He came to realize that he would find
the safe harbor of salvation in the Orthodox Church.
St Macarius
left Rome secretly, and set out for Russia without money, and wearing an
old garment. After many sufferings on his journey, he arrived in
Novgorod, where he rejoiced to see so many churches and monasteries. One
of these monasteries had been founded three centuries before by his
fellow countryman, St Anthony the Roman (August 3).
St Macarius
came to the banks of the River Svir, where St Alexander of Svir (April
17 and August 30) had founded the monastery of the Holy Trinity. St
Alexander received Macarius into the Orthodox Church and tonsured him as
a monk. Macarius, however longed for the solitary life. He moved to an
island on the River Lezna, forty-five miles from Novgorod, where he
engaged in ascetical struggles and unceasing prayer.
The winters
were very cold, and the summers were hot and humid. The marshy area was
also a breeding ground for mosquitos, which tormented the saint. St
Macarius survived on berries, roots, and herbs. Sometimes bears would
come to him for food, and they allowed him to pet them.
Such a
great lamp of the spiritual life could not remain hidden for long. One
rainy night someone knocked on his door and asked him to open it.
Several people, who seemed to be hunters, entered his cell. Astonished
by his appearance, and the divine light shining from his face, the men
asked for his blessing. They told him they had come to the forest to
hunt, and only by the prayers of the saint did God permit them to find
him.
“It is not my sinful prayers,” he told them, “but the grace of God which led you here.”
After
feeding them, he spoke and prayed with them, then showed them the way
out of the marsh. St Macarius was concerned that his peace would be
disturbed, now that his dwelling place was known. His fears were
justified, because many people sought him out to ask for his advice and
prayers.
The holy ascetic decided to move even farther into the
wilderness, choosing an elevated place on the left bank of the Lezna.
Even here, however, he was not able to conceal himself for very long.
Sometimes a pillar of fire would rise up into the sky at night above his
place of refuge. During the day, the grace of God was made manifest by a
fragrant cloud of smoke. Drawn by these signs, the local inhabitants of
the region were able to find him once more.
Some of his visitors
begged St Macarius to permit them to live near him and to be guided by
his counsels. Seeing that this was the Lord’s will, he did not refuse
them. He blessed them to build cells, and this was the foundation of his
monastery.
In 1540, they built a wooden church dedicated to the
Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. St Macarius was ordained to the
holy priesthood by Bishop Macarius of Novgorod, who later became
Metropolitan of All Russia. The hierarch also appointed St Macarius as
igumen of the monastery.
St Macarius was an example to the others,
and was given the gifts of clairvoyance and wonderworking from God. He
wore himself out with his labors and vigils, encouraging others not to
become faint-hearted in their own struggles.
After several years,
he entrusted the monastery to one of his disciples, and returned to the
island where he had first lived. There he fell asleep in the Lord on
August 15, 1550. His disciples buried him outside on the left side of
the Dormition church which he had founded.
The Hermitage of St
Macarius was never a prosperous monastery with many monks, but it was
distinguished by the high level of spiritual life. In the seventeenth
century, many of the monasteries near Novgorod were plundered by Swedish
invaders. The Hermitage of St Macarius was also burned in 1615, and
some of the monks were put to the sword.
By the eighteenth
century, the monastery had become a dependency of the St Alexander
Nevsky Lavra in St Petersburg. The Empress Catherine closed it in 1764,
just as she had closed other monasteries, and it was designated as a
parish church. Although pilgrims still came to venerate the saint’s
relics and to celebrate his Feast Day, the buildings soon fell into
ruin.
In the mid-nineteenth century, some benefactors restored the
two churches and the miraculous healing spring which the saint himself
had dug. About this time an old priest was living there, and he
celebrated the church services until his death. In 1894, the monastery
began to function once more under the noted missionary Hieromonk
Arsenius, who introduced the Athonite Typikon. The monastery was
destroyed by the Soviets in 1932.
St Macarius the Roman is commemorated on August 15 (the date of his repose), and also on January 19 (his nameday).
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