with divine
delights; but on the third he met with so violent a disturbance from the
devil, that he was obliged to stop short of his design, and to return to
his usual manner of life. Contemplative souls often desire, in times of
heavenly consolation, never to be interrupted in the glorious employment
of love and praise: but the functions of Martha, the frailty and
necessities of the human frame, and the temptations of the devil, force
them, though reluctant, from their beloved object. Nay, God oftentimes
withdraws himself, as the saint observed on this occasion, to make them
sensible of their own weakness, and that this life is a state of trial.
St. Macarius once saw, in a vision, devils closing the eyes of the monks
to drowsiness, and tempting them by diverse methods to distractions,
during the time of public prayer. Some, as often as they approached,
chased them away by a secret supernatural force, while others were in
dalliance with their suggestions. The saint burst into sighs and tears;
and, when prayer was ended, admonished every one of his distractions,
and of the snares of the enemy, with an earnest exhortation to employ,
in that sacred duty, a more than ordinary watchfulness against his
attacks.[7] St. Jerom[8] and others relate, that a certain anchoret in
Nitria, having left one hundred crowns at his death, which he had
acquired by weaving cloth, the monks of that desert met to deliberate
what should be done with that money. Some were for having it given to
the poor, others to the church: but Macarius, Pambo, Isidore, and
others, who were called the fathers, ordained that the one hundred
crowns should be thrown into the grave and buried with the corpse of the
deceased, and that at the same time the following words should be
pronounced: "_May thy money be with thee to perdition_."[9] This example
struck such a terror into all the monks, that no one durst lay up any
money by him.

Palladius, who, from 391, lived three years under our saint, was
eye-witness to several miracles wrought by him. He relates, that a
certain priest, whose head, in a manner shocking to behold, was consumed
by a cancerous sore, came to his cell, but was refused admittance; nay,
the saint at first would not even speak to him. Palladius, by earnest
entreaties, strove to prevail upon him to give at least some answer to
so great an object of compassion. Macarius, on the contrary, urged that
he was unworthy, and that God, to punish him for a