ure, which, if tolerated, might on several accounts be prejudicial to
their community. St. Pachomius entreated God to know who this stranger
was; and learning by revelation that he was the great Macarius, embraced
him, thanked him for his edifying visit, and desired him to return to
his desert, and there offer up his prayers for them.[3] Our saint
happened one day inadvertently to kill a gnat that was biting him in his
cell; reflecting that he had lost the opportunity of suffering that
mortification, he hastened from his cell for the marshes of Scete, which
abound with great flies, whose stings pierce even boars. There he
continued six months exposed to those ravaging insects; and to such a
degree was his whole body disfigured by them with sores and swellings,
that when he returned he was only to be known by his voice.[4] Some
authors relate[5] that he did this to overcome a temptation of the
flesh.

The virtue of this great saint was often exercised with temptations. One
was a suggestion to quit his desert and go to Rome, to serve the sick in
the hospitals; which, by due reflection, he discovered to be a secret
artifice of vain-glory inciting him to attract the eyes and esteem of
the world. True humility alone could discover the snare which lurked
under the specious gloss of holy charity. Finding this enemy extremely
importunate, he threw himself on the ground in his cell, and cried out
to the fiends: "Drag me hence if you can by force, for I will not stir."
Thus he lay till night, and by this vigorous resistance they were quite
disarmed.[6] As soon as he arose they renewed the assault; and he, to
stand firm against them, filled two great baskets with sand, and laying
them on his shoulders, travelled along the wilderness. A person of his
acquaintance meeting him, asked him what he meant, and made an offer of
easing him of his burden; but the saint made no other reply than this:
"I am tormenting my tormentor." He returned home in the evening, much
fatigued in body, but freed from the temptation. Palladius informs us,
that St. Macarius, desiring to enjoy more perfectly the sweets of
heavenly contemplation, at least for five days without interruption,
{075} immured himself within his cell for this purpose, and said to his
soul: "Having taken up thy abode in heaven, where thou hast God and the
holy angels to converse with, see that thou descend not thence: regard
not earthly things." The two first days his heart overflowed