Macarius (Macarius-Simeon, Pseudo-Macarius)

The Macarian writings have bequeathed a pervasive and profound legacy to the Orthodox Christian world. As a source of Orthodox Christian mystical and ascetic theology their influence is analogous to that of Evagrius of Pontus and Dionysius the Areopagite. The writings comprise a monumental collection of treatises, letters, questions and responses, and homilies – well over a hundred distinct pieces. ¹ The anonymous author was the spiritual guide of a network of ascetic communities in Syro-Mesopotamia, flourishing between c.370 and c.390. The writings were from a very early stage (before 534) ascribed to a Macarius (both of Egypt and of Alexandria). Some later sources ascribe the corpus to a Simeon (the Ascetic or the Stylite) – hence the designation “Macarius-Simeon.”