ON ST. MACARIUS OF ROME, AT LAVINO IN ITALY.
Circa A.D. 450.
CommentaryMacarius of Rome, Hermit in Italy (St.)
[1] This is a different Macarius from the one whose life, written by Theophilus and two companion monks, survives in the Lives of the Fathers, and whose death is recorded in the Menologion and Menaea on October 23.
[2] Palladius mentions this Macarius in the Lausiac History, or book 8 of the Lives of the Fathers, chapter 123, writing that Pammachius, a former Proconsul, came to visit Pinianus, the former husband of the younger Melania, Macarius, companion of Pinianus; others call him Agathon. together with a certain man named Macarius who had been Vice-Prefect, and Constantius, Assessor of the Prefects of Italy — distinguished and most learned men who had reached the summit of piety and religion. This Macarius in certain Greek manuscripts, as Rosweyde noted, is called Agathon. The title "ex Vicaria" He was Vice-Prefect of the City. (Greek: apo bikarias) means "Former Vice-Prefect," one who had held the office of Vice-Prefect, as Victor Giselinus beautifully explains in chapter 18 of Sulpicius Severus's Dialogue 3, where "Lycontius ex Vicariis" appears, as also in chapter 1 of the same dialogue, "Eucherius ex Vicariis." Ortelius incorrectly supposed that "Vicaria" was the name of a place from which the man originated.
[3] Ferrarius records this summary of his life in his catalogue of the Saints of Italy, from the office of the Church of Piacenza: "Macarius of Rome, Vice-Prefect of the City of Rome, Solitary, he reached extreme old age. desiring the monastic life and despising all things, led a solitary life on the roots of herbs and water. He overcame the snares of Satan by constant prayers and bodily mortification, especially by fasting; and thus, most dear to God, he completed the course of his life in the greatest holiness to extreme old age. His sarcophagus of white and translucent marble survives in the church of St. Helena near the Lavino stream in the territory of Bologna, where we conjecture that he led the eremitic life. His body at Piacenza. His body is preserved at Piacenza in the basilica of St. Sixtus beneath an altar dedicated to him. They report that his life was written by Theophilus."
[4] Ferrarius therefore wrongly supposes the life of this Macarius was written by Theophilus, as does Baronius himself in his Notes on January 2. But to anyone reading both lives, it is clear enough that there are two Roman Macarii, as our Rosweyde clearly demonstrates in his Note on the life of the other Macarius of Rome in book 1 of the Lives of the Fathers.
[5] The place near Lavino, where the parish church of St. Helena stands, distinguished by St. Macarius's sarcophagus, is commonly called Chierno and belongs to the Servite Friars, as the same Ferrarius attests in his Notes. He adds that this epitaph of St. Macarius is read on the sarcophagus: Epitaph. "I am called Macarius, born in the city of Rome." He also reports that this Saint is customarily invoked by the local inhabitants against storms, Macarius is invoked against storms. that some call him an Abbot, and that his body was for a long time preserved at Nonantula.
[6] From the Life of St. Paula written by St. Jerome, to be found below on January 26, it is gathered that this Macarius was at one time imbued with the errors of Origen by the Presbyter Rufinus, He was once an Origenist. which errors he later abjured, as Rufinus himself also did, as we shall say in due course.