Saint Macarius of Jerusalem

Macarius was bishop of Jerusalem from 312 until shortly before 335. He found himself in the right place at the moment everything was changing, and he stayed in it to the end. Athanasius, speaking of him in one of his orations against Arianism, holds him up as an example of the “simple and honest style of apostolic men.” It wasn’t a generic compliment: Macarius was one of Arius’s most determined opponents, so much so that Arius himself names him, with irritation, in his letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia. He took part in the Council of Nicaea in 325, and together with Eustathius of Antioch he may have played an important role in drafting the Nicene Creed — the one still recited today. His name appears first among the bishops of Palestine who signed the council’s acts. Around those same years he accompanied Saint Helena, mother of Constantine, on her journey to Jerusalem and in the search for the True Cross. He died around 335, before the Council of Tyre, where his successor Maximus was already sitting in his place. Sozomen says that Macarius had appointed that same Maximus bishop of Lydda, and that the appointment never took effect because the people of Jerusalem refused to let him go. If your name is Macario, today is your name day.