Venerable Macarius of Alexandria

Venerable Macarius of Alexandria is a person distinct from Venerable Macarius the Great of Egypt, his contemporary and close friend in desert asceticism, though both bore the same name and struggled in the same era. He is called "of Alexandria" or "the Citizen" to distinguish him from Macarius "the Egyptian" — according to some accounts, because of his Alexandrian origin, according to others, because before his desert life he had been a city-dweller (unlike Macarius the Great, connected with rural life from his youth).

After many years of eremitic struggle, he was ordained a presbyter and made abbot of the monastic settlement of Kellia ("the Cells") — a desert area between the Nitrian mountain and Scetis, where hermits lived each in his own cell, gathering together for worship on Saturdays and Sundays. He became renowned as a great ascetic, teacher of monks, wonderworker, and mystic; he is credited with authoring the "Word on the Departure of the Soul" (included in some editions of the Psalter).

He reposed in deep old age, around 395.

His feast is kept on January 19/February 1 — on the SAME DAY as Venerable Macarius the Great of Egypt; this is not an error or contamination, but a genuine joint celebration of both great hermits, independently attested (azbyka.ru, obitel-minsk.ru).

IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the stub's false claim that the saint "headed the Alexandrian church" has been removed — Macarius of Alexandria was not a patriarch or bishop, but a presbyter-abbot of the Kellia monastic community; the likely cause of the error is confusion with the Patriarchs of Alexandria.