MACARIO d'ALESSANDRIA. - The various persons named M. who were famous in Egypt were discussed by C. Butler (The Lausiac history of Palladius, II [*Texts and Studies, 6, 11], Cambridge 1904, p. 193 ff.). Palladio speaks of M. d'A. in ibid. 18 (pp. 47, 22 ff.), having known him personally. He also bears the nickname ὁ παλτικὸς (Socrate, Hist., IV, 23), which Sozomeno, Hist. eccl., III, 24 interprets as ἀγίατος*, that is, the inhabitant of the city of Alessandria; this nickname was also borne by M. the Younger, in order to distinguish him from his namesake, called M. the Egyptian or the Elder. An anchorite in Egypt, he died around 393.
A Sermo de exitu statuque animarum post hanc vitam (PG 34, 385-92; also in Syriac translation: V. A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur, Bonn 1922, p. 86 and n. 1, and in Arabic translation, G. Graf, op. cit. in bibl., p. 395) has been attributed to him, but certainly wrongly. The Rule of M. ad monachos (PG 34, 967 ff.) is likewise apocryphal.