of January; in the Greek Menaea on the 19th. An ancient monastic
rule, and an epistle addressed to monks, written in sentences, like the
book of Proverbs, are ascribed to St. Macarius. Tillemont thinks them
more probably the works of St. Macarius of Alexandria, who had under his
inspection at Nitria five thousand monks.[18] Gennadius[19] says that
St. Macarius wrote nothing but this letter. This may be understood of
St. Macarius of Alexandria, though one who wrote in Gaul might not have
seen all the works of an author whose country was so remote, and
language different. Fifty spiritual homilies are ascribed, in the first
edition, and in some manuscripts, to St. Macarius of Egypt: yet F.
Possin[20] thinks they rather belong to Macarius of Pispir, who attended
St. Antony at his death, and seems to have been some years older than
the two great Macariuses, though some have thought him the same with the
Alexandrian.[21]

Footnotes:
1. Bolland. 15. Jan. p. 1011, Sec.39. Cotel. Mon. Gr{}t, l. 1, p. 546.
2. Cotel. ib. p. 525. Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 3, c. 99, l. 5, c. 15,
Sec.25, p. 623.
3. Mount Nitria was above forty miles from Alexandria, towards the
Southwest. The desert of Scete lay eighty miles beyond Nitria, and
was rather in Lybia than in Egypt. It was of a vast extent, and then
were no roads thereabouts, so that men were guided only by the stars
in travelling in those parts. See Tillemont on St. Amon and this
Macarius.
4. Socrates, l. 4, c. 23.
5. Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 3, Sec.3, p. 505, l. 5, c. 4, Sec.26, p. 569.
6. Rosweide, l. 3, c. 20, l. 5, c. 12. Cotel. p. 537.
7. Domine, sicut scis et vis, miserere me!
8. Rosweide, l. 3, c. 127. Cotel. t. 1, p. 547.
9. Rosweide, l. 5, c. 15.
10. Rosweide, l. 7, c. 48. Cotel. t. 1, p. 537. Rosweide, ib. Sec.9.
11. Cassian Collat. 5, c. 32.
12. Rosweide, l. 3, c. 97, l. 6, c. 3, Sec.17, p. 657.
13. Theodoret, l. 4, c. 18, 19. Socr. l. 4, c. 22. Sozom. l. 6, c. 19,
20. Rufin. l. 2, c. 3. S. Hier. in Chrom. Oros. l. 7, c. 33. Pallad.
Lausiac. c. 117.
14. Rosw. Vit. Part. l. 5, c. 3, Sec.9. Cotel. Mon. Gr. p. 545.
15. Pallad. Lausiac. c. 19.
16. Cassian. Collat. 15, c. 13. Tillem. Note 3, p. 806.
17. Rosw. Vit. Patr. l. 5, c. 7, Sec.9. Cotel. Apothegm. Patr. 530. Tillem.
art. 4, p. 581, and Note 4, p. 80{}.
18. See Tillem. Note 3, p. 806.
19. Gennad. Cat. c. 10.
20. Possin. Ascet. pr. p. 17.
21.
Du Pin allows these fifty homili