MACARIUS OF MAGNESIA. - At the "Synod of the Oak" (403) a bishop M. of Magnesia accused Heraclides of Ephesus, a friend of St. John Chrysostom (Photius, Bibl., cod. 59). This M. is in all probability identical with the M. Magnes to whom a book has been attributed with the title: Ἀποκριτικὸς ἢ Μονογενὴς πρὸς Ἕλληνες, a work that was cited by the patriarch Nicephorus in his Antirrhetica (v. J. B. Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmense, I, Paris 1852, p. 307).

Of this work there still existed at the end of the 15th century two manuscripts in the Salento 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 extract copied by Francesco Torres (or Turriano) in 1552 for polemical purposes against the 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 (πίνακες) of the first 3 books of M. (v. Mercati, loc. cit., p. 49 ff.). By means of these tables of books I and II about fifteen questions put to the pagan adversary are now known, of which nothing was known before. About the person of the pagan adversary who is combated by M. in his reply to the objections to certain biblical texts nothing is known for certain. It appears that the pagan adversary 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

or of MAGNESIA - The indices of the first three books of the work attributed to M. of M. - Vatican Library, cod. Vat. gr. 1650, f. 187r (13th-14th cent.).(phot. Enc. Catt.)

M. was also the author of a collection of homilies.
A fragment from a homily on Gen. 3:21 seems authentic.
The question whether the Macarius cited in the catena on St. Luke
is different from M. of Magnesia (I. Sickenberger, Die
Lukaskaten des Niketas v. Heraklea [Texte und Untersuchungen 22],
Leipzig 1902, p. 90 ff. and 107) is still under
study (v. Mercati, loc. cit., p. 52, n. 1).

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: Edition of the Athens manuscript: Macarii Magnetis quae supersunt, ed. C. Blondel, Paris 1876. Studies: G. Schalkhaus-ser, Zu den Schriften des M. v. Magnesia (Texte u. Unters., 31, IV), Leipzig 1907; J. Geffcken, Zwei griechische Apologeten, ibid. 1907, pp. 301-304; A. Harnack, Kritik des Neuen Testaments von einem griech. Philosophen (Texte und Unters., 37, IV), ibid. 1911; id., Porphyrius. Gegen die Christen, Berlin 1912; H. Dörries, s. v. in Pauly-Wissowa, XXVII, col. 627 ff.; P. de Labriolle, La réaction païenne, Paris 1934, p. 244 ff.

Erik Peterson

@incollection{ec7_macario_di_magnesia, author = {Peterson, Erik}, title = {Macario di Magnesia}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1742--1743}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/macario-di-magnesia} }

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Macarius of Magnesia

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