|
THE SEVENTH
MONTH IN THE NAME
OF THE FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, On this day died the holy father Abba Macarius, the fifty-ninth Archbishop of Alexandria. This holy man was a native of the city, the name of which is Sebra, and from his youth up he rejected the world, and he wished to adopt the garb of monasticism. He went into the desert of Scete, and became a monk in the church of Saint Abba Macarius, and he contended strenuously in the monastic life, and there appeared in him virtues and good works. When Cosmas, the archbishop who was his predecessor, died, the bishops with one consent agreed to appoint this father archbishop, and they appointed him Archbishop of Alexandria against his will. When he went forth from his city to go to the desert of Scete, according to his custom, as he was journeying along he arrived at the city where he was born. And it was like a living person, for it was righteous and pure, and feared God, and it hated the glory of this transitory world and loved heavenly glory. And this father came and arrived in that city, wherein he was born, in order to embrace his mother. When his mother heard that he had arrived she did not go out to him. When he had come into the house he found her sitting down weaving, and she neither rose up before him, nor embraced him. And he thinking that she did not know him said unto her, “Am I not your son? Why dost thou not embrace me? Or peradventure thou dost not know me?” And she answered and said unto him, “I know thee, only thou dost not know thyself. On my part I would rather see thee dead and buried, than see thee in the archiepiscopate. Formerly thou hadst to search out thine own sins only, but now thou hast to search out the sins of all thy flock”; and they two wept together. And the word entered his heart, and every day he remembered his mother’s words, and he contended strenuously in himself, and to protect his flock. He made the people vigilant by reading to them the Scriptures, and works of admonition, and he took good heed not to lay his hand on any man, and not to make a bishop, or a priest, unless the man was the best fitted for the office. He never took any of the property of the Church, which it was not right for him to take, and he appointed no man to an office without the testimony of righteous and blessed priests. And he commanded the bishops and the priests to watch their people, and to protect them with homilies and admonitions. He sat on the throne of Mark the Evangelist twenty years, quietly and in peace, and during his days in the Orthodox and well-managed churches services for prayer and the Holy Offering were held regularly; and he died in peace. Salutation to Macarius the Archbishop. And on this day also the Council of the Jews (i.e. the Sanhedrim) devised many plans against our Lord.
Glory
be to God Who is glorified in His Saints.
Amen. |
||