A. 188. Athanasius alone – the man who by the sheer
strength of his character has altered the direction of history –
would have sufficed to make any age a brilliant one. But his
times were resplendent with other spiritual leaders, all of
whom stood side by side with him in perfect solidarity, and
thus by their concerted efforts, consolidated the Christian
faith.
Eminent among these leaders was Macari, who
became known historically as St. Macarius of Egypt.
Macari was a disciple of St. Antoni. This
discipleship, together with his own intensive self-training and
practice of Christian virtue, gave him an unusual spiritual
maturity early in his life, so much so that he came to be
called by the Fathers ‘the aged youth’. For "to him was
given the gift of performing mighty deeds, and his spiritual
foresight and power of interpreting the Scriptures were
remarkable indeed."^1
Three stories from the many related about him
epitomise the heights he attained. The first shows the depth
of his humility as revealed in one of his encounters with the
Evil one. "The quintessence of the Desert is in the exquisite
story", says Helen Waddell,^2 "frugal as the light of its dawn,
of how Macari returning at daybreak, with his bundle of
palm leaves, met the Evil one; and the Evil one feinted at
him with his sickle but could not reach him, and began to cry
out on Macari for the violence he did him. ‘Yet whatever
thou dost, I do also and more. Thou dost fast now and then
but by no food am I ever refreshed; thou dost keep vigil, but
no slumber ever falls upon me. In one thing only dost thou
overmaster me’. And when the saint asked what that might
be, ‘In thy humility’, he answered. And the Saint fell upon
his knees – it may be to repel this last and subtlest temptation
- and the devil vanished into the air".