4th century
Venerable Macarius of Egypt (the Great)
An Egyptian ascetic (c. 300–391), a disciple of Anthony the Great, who lived for decades in the desert of Scetis and is counted among the great fathers of monasticism.
Biography
Macarius was born around 300 in a village in Lower Egypt. As a young man he married at his parents' wish, but was soon widowed, and after they too died he distributed his wealth to the poor and withdrew to the desert to live as an ascetic.
At the age of forty he visited Anthony the Great, became his disciple and was ordained priest, afterwards living for sixty years in the desert of Scetis, where he gained a reputation for strict asceticism, wisdom and the gift of healing the sick, earning him the nickname 'the old young man'.
According to tradition he was also granted the gift of foresight and the power to work miracles. In old age he was exiled to an island in the Nile by the Arian bishop of Alexandria, Lucius, and died in peace in 391 at the age of 90.