Hierarch
Hierarch Macarius Of Jerusalem
еп. ок. 312/314 — †ок. 333/335
Hierarch Macarius I, Bishop of Jerusalem — a participant and one of the signatories of the acts of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea (325), an opponent of the Arian heresy; he accompanied Empress Helena in her search for the site of Christ's Passion and directed the excavations that led to the discovery of the Holy Sepulchre, and by order of Emperor Constantine the Great he headed the construction of the Basilica of the Resurrection.
Hierarch Macarius held the episcopal see of Jerusalem from approximately 312/314. In 325 he took part in the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea and signed its acts first among the Palestinian bishops — even ahead of Eusebius of Caesarea. He actively opposed the heresy of Arius, who in his letters called him "a heretic and an ignoramus"; some researchers believe Hierarch Macarius, together with St. Eustathius of Antioch, may have helped draft the text of the Nicene Creed.
Around 325 he accompanied Empress Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, in her search for the site of Christ's Passion in Jerusalem and directed the excavations that uncovered the site of the Holy Sepulchre, previously built over by a pagan temple. Emperor Constantine personally commissioned Hierarch Macarius to build a magnificent basilica over this site; an imperial letter to Macarius survives, praising the discovery of the tomb as "surpassing all admiration." The church's foundation was laid in 325/326.
He ordained Maximus as Bishop of Diospolis, keeping him on as an assistant and future successor.
He reposed around 333/335, before the Council of Tyre convened.
His feast is kept on March 10/23 — this date is independently confirmed by two sources and coincides in both the Orthodox and Catholic traditions. In Greek and Georgian tradition he is also venerated on August 16/29. HONEST CAVEAT: Hierarch Macarius of Jerusalem is currently absent from the official ROC menologion.
IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the entry's sole image (a Western Baroque painting with no legible inscription, whose subject matter — an execution scene involving a wheel — does not match the hierarch's known deeds) raises serious doubts about its attribution and has been excluded as unverified/likely unrelated.