SAINT MACARIUS of ALEXANDRIA & SAINT FULGENTIUS

SAINT MACARIUS of ALEXANDRIA
Hermit
(†394)

Saint Macarius when a youth left his fruit-stall at Alexandria to join the great Saint Anthony; that patriarch, advised by a miracle of his disciple’s sanctity, named him the heir to his virtues. For a time he remained in the Thebaid with his fellow hermits, but later he went to the desert of Scete. He had a cell there and others in two distinct places, but his principal dwelling place was the desert of the Cells. All of these cells were for him a source of mortification, being without window, or too short for him to lie down.

The life of this solitary was one long conflict with himself and with the demons. “I am tormenting my tormentor,” he replied to a hermit who met him in the heat of the day, bent double with a basket of sand. “Whenever I am slothful and idle, I am pestered by desires for distant travel.” When he was quite worn out he returned to his cell. Since sleep at times overpowered him, he kept watch standing for twenty days and nights; then, being about to faint, he entered his cell and slept, but thereafter slept only at will.

When for six months the demons tormented him with temptations, he would go to a marsh and remain naked in the water until his body was covered with noxious insect bites and boils, and he was recognized only by his voice. Once, when being thirsty he received a present of grapes, he passed them untouched to a hermit who was toiling in the heat. This one gave them to a third, who handed them to a fourth; in this way the grapes went the round of the desert and finally returned to Macarius, who thanked God for his brethren’s self-denial.

Macarius saw demons assailing the hermits at prayer. They put their fingers into the mouths of some and made them yawn. They closed the eyes of others, and walked upon them with contempt when they fell asleep. They placed vain and sensual images before many of the brethren, and then mocked those who were captivated by them. None vanquished the devils effectively save those who by constant vigilance repelled them at once. He called some of the solitaries to come to him and asked them if they had not thought about buildings, journeys or other such things. They acknowledged their fault, seeing he had perceived the vain thoughts which distract souls during prayer, caused by the illusion of the devils, and which the vigilant reject as foreign to their purpose.

After being many years Superior, Macarius, desiring humiliation and spiritual progress, fled in disguise to Saint Pachomius to begin religious life over again as his novice. Soon the brethren were going to their Superior to tell them of the extraordinary mortifications of the newcomer. Saint Pachomius prayed, and then, instructed by a vision, addressed Macarius by his name, saying he had long wanted to know him. And he thanked him for having given such excellent examples to his religious. Then he bade him return to his former brethren in religion, who loved him as their father, to pray for Pachomius’ monks as well.

At the age of seventy-three, Saint Macarius was driven into exile and brutally outraged by Arian heretics. He died in the year 394.

Reflection. Prayer is the breath of the soul. But Saint Macarius teaches us that both mind and body must be brought to subjection before the soul is free to pray efficaciously.

Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 1; Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Livesof the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).

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SAINT FULGENTIUS
Doctor of the Church, Bishop
(468-533)

Born in Africa of illustrious and Catholic parents, Fulgentius was an excellent student of languages and of various other practical disciplines. His father had died while still young, and Fulgentius soon became the support of his mother and younger brother. He was appointed at an early age procurator of his province at Carthage; but this elevation in the world’s esteem was distasteful to him, and he was enlightened by the Spirit of God to see the vanity of the world.

At the age of twenty-two, having read Saint Augustine’s treatise on the Psalms, he resolved to embrace monastic life, and began to prepare for it by mental prayer, fasting, and other penances practiced in secret. When he was accepted into a monastery by a holy bishop named Faustus, his mother hoped to change his mind; but when she arrived he remained firm and did not accept to see her. Such are the austerities of the Saints, called to accomplish much for God. He later renounced all his goods on behalf of his mother and younger brother.

After six years of peace, his monastery was attacked by Arian heretics, and Faustus, Fulgentius and the other monks were driven out, destitute, into the desert. Fulgentius entered another monastery on his Superior’s advice, and there he shared the duties of the Superior, to the latter’s great consolation, until that house was attacked by barbarians. In the refuge to which he then repaired he was persecuted, held captive, and tortured by an Arian priest, but sought no vengeance when authorities offered him support if he would enter a complaint. Fulgentius and his Superior, who was with him, decided to build another monastery in the province they had abandoned.

For a time Fulgentius remained there, but he desired solitude and set out on a journey to the holy places of Rome. There the imperial splendors he beheld spoke to him of the greater glory of the heavenly Jerusalem, his final goal. And at the first lull in the persecution, he returned to his African cell in the year 500.

Elected bishop of Ruspe in 508, he was summoned to face new dangers, and was shortly afterwards banished by the Arian king, with some sixty other Catholic prelates, to Sardinia. Though the youngest of the exiles, he became the spokesman of his brethren and the support of their orphaned flocks. By his books and letters, which are still extant, he confounded both Pelagian and Arian heresiarchs, and strengthened the Catholics in Africa and Gaul. He prayed for all his compatriots in exile: “You know, Lord, what is most expedient for the salvation of our souls; assist us in our corporal necessities, that we may not lose the spiritual goods.” On the death of the Arian king, the bishops returned to their flocks. Saint Fulgentius was welcomed amid the greatest joy, after eighteen years of exile. He labored with his fellow bishops in the synods as their chosen leader, and re-established discipline. When he felt his end was near, he retired to an island monastery, where after a year’s preparation he called for his clergy and religious, and with their aid distributed all his goods to the poor. He died in peace in the year 533.

Reflection. Each year may bring us new changes and trials; let us learn from Saint Fulgentius to receive all that happens as appointed for our salvation, and from the hand of God.