sin of the flesh he
was addicted to, had afflicted him with this disorder: however, that
upon his sincere repentance, and promise never more during his life to
presume to celebrate the divine mysteries, he would intercede for his
cure. The priest confessed his sin with a promise, pursuant to the
ancient canonical discipline, never after to perform any priestly
function. The saint thereupon absolved him by the imposition of hands;
and a few days after the priest came back perfectly healed, glorifying
God, and giving thanks to his servant. Palladius found himself tempted
to sadness, on a suggestion from the devil, that he made no progress in
virtue, and that it was to no purpose for him to remain in the desert.
He consulted his master, who bade him persevere with fervor, never dwell
on the temptation, and always answer instantly the fiend: "My love for
Jesus Christ will not suffer me to quit my cell, where I am determined
to abide in order to please and serve him agreeably to his will."

The two saints of the name of Macarius happened one day to cross the
{076} Nile together in a boat, when certain tribunes, or principal
officers, who were there with their numerous trains, could not help
observing to each other, that those men, from the cheerfulness of their
aspect, must be exceeding happy in their poverty. Macarius of
Alexandria, alluding to their name, which in Greek signifies _happy_,
made this answer: "You have reason to call us happy, for this is our
name. But if we are happy in despising the world, are not you miserable
who live slaves to it?" These words, uttered with a tone of voice
expressive of an interior conviction of their truth, had such an effect
on the tribune who first spoke, that, hastening home, he distributed his
fortune among the poor, and embraced an eremitical life. In 375, both
these saints were banished for the catholic faith, at the instigation of
Lacius, the Arian patriarch of Alexandria. Our saint died in the year
394, as Tillemont shows from Palladius. The Latins commemorate him on
the 2d, the Greeks with the elder Macarius, on the 19th of January.

In the desert of Nitria there subsists at this day a monastery which
bears the name of St. Macarius. The monastic rule called St. Macarius's,
in the code of rules, is ascribed to this of Alexandria. St. Jerom seems
to have copied some things from it in his letter to Rusticus. The
concord, or collection of rules, gives us another, under the names o