MACARIUS of MAGNESIA. — At the “Oak Synod” (403), a Bishop M. of Magnesia accused HERACLIDES of Ephesus, a friend of St JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (Photius, Bibl., cod. 59). This M. is with the greatest probability identical with the M. of Magnesia to whom has been attributed a book with the title: Ἀποκριτικός Ἡ Μονογενής πρὸς Ἕλληνας, a work which was cited by Patriarch NICEPHORUS in his Antirrhetici (v. J. B. Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmense, I, Paris 1852, p. 307).
Of this work two manuscripts still existed at the end of the 15th century in the Salentine peninsula (v. G. Mercati, Nuove note di letteratura biblica e cristiana antica Studi e testi, 95, Vatican City 1941, p. 49 and n. 2); one manuscript was recorded in 1524 by Laskaris in Venice and an excerpt copied by Francesco Torres (or Turriano) in 1552 for polemical purposes against Protestants, and another complete manuscript appeared in Epirus at Athens and was copied by Blondel. All these original manuscripts have been lost, but recently Cardinal Mercati discovered in a Vatican codex the indices (tituli) of the first three books of M. (v. Mercati, loc. cit., p. 49 sg). By means of these tables of contents some fifteen questions raised against the pagan opponent are now known, of which nothing was previously known. Nothing certain is known about the person of the pagan opponent whom M. combats in his reply to objections against certain biblical texts. It seems that the pagan opponent made use of the great work of PORPHYRY against the Christians. M. was not a strong apologist in the face of the Greek polemicist. His theology, however, has not yet been well studied. Probably
Macarius the Great — Incipit of the Oratio XVIII — Vatican Library, cod. Vat. gr. 694, f. 133 (13th cent.).
platonizing tendencies in this field. He encouraged the Tsar to wage war against Kazan and Astrakhan and thus opened for Muscovy the path toward the East and Siberia.
BIBL. A. M. Ammann, Storia della Chiesa russa e dei paesi limitrofi, Turin 1948, V. index, with bibliography; P. Pascal, Le métropolie Macaire et ses grandes entreprises littéraires, in Russie et chrétienté, Paris 1949, nos. 1-2, pp. 7-17. Alberto M. Ammann