Venerable
Venerable Macarius Of Unzha
1349 — †25 июля 1444
Also known as: Макарий Желтоводский
Venerable Macarius of Unzha (Zheltovodsky) — a 14th-15th-century Nizhny Novgorod ascetic, founder of several monasteries (Reshma, the Trinity Zheltovodsky, Sviyazhsk, and Trinity Unzha), captured by Kazan Tatars during the destruction of the Zheltovodsky community in 1439 and released by the khan together with 400 other captives on account of his piety.
Venerable Macarius was born in 1349 in Nizhny Novgorod to a pious family. At age 12 he secretly left home and was tonsured at the Nizhny Novgorod Caves (Pechersky) Monastery under Venerable Dionysius of Suzdal.
He founded several communities: the Reshma Monastery (c. 1390s), the Trinity Zheltovodsky Monastery at "Yellow Waters" on the Volga (1435), a community at Sviyazhsk (after 1439), and the Trinity Unzha Monastery (1439). In 1439 the Kazan Tatars of Khan Ulu-Muhammad destroyed the Zheltovodsky Monastery and took Venerable Macarius captive; struck by his piety, the khan released him together with about 400 other Christian captives, on condition he not resettle at Yellow Waters. He then founded the Unzha Monastery, where he lived another five years.
He reposed on July 25, 1444. His relics were found incorrupt in 1670 (his head rests at Zheltovodsky Monastery, the rest of his relics at Unzha). By order of Patriarch Filaret, over 50 miraculous healings at the saint's relics were investigated in 1610, which cemented his all-Russian veneration; he is also credited with a posthumous miracle of saving Soligalich from the Tatars in 1532.
His feast is kept on July 25/August 7; locally also October 12 (translation of relics, 1671).
IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the impossible life years "c. 300 – c. 391" (in fact belonging to the 4th-century Venerable Macarius the Great of Egypt) have been removed — the correct years, 1349-1444, have been established. The contaminated date "January 19/May 1" has been replaced with the correct date, July 25/August 7.