The Teaching of St. Macarius the Great

The Teaching of ST. MACARIUS THE GREAT
by I. M. Kontzevitch

 
THE HOLY FATHERS of Orthodox Spirituality: The monastic Holy Fathers, from a fresco in the Holy Trinity Monastery refectory, Jordanville, N.Y. From left to right: Sts. Athanasius of Mt. Athos, Simeon the Myrrh-gusher of Serbia, Theodore the Studite, Onuphrius the Great, Macarius the Great, John of Ryla, and John Cassian.


SAINT MACARIUS THE GREAT ("the Egyptian") was a disciple of St. Anthony the Great; his relation to him was that of disciple to elder. In his works are often to be encountered ideas which are found also in the works of St. Anthony. One may suppose that he noted down or remembered much that he heard from his Abba.

Just as St. John the Theologian, soaring in his old age to unattainable spiritual heights, could thereby reproduce in letters the spiritual teaching of Christ the Saviour, so also St. Macarius, having attained the same measure as St. Anthony, not only mastered the depths of his teaching, but also, as a seer of mysteries himself, transmitted his own visions.

His teaching is the record of a dweller of heaven, a heavenly man. To him, one who had attained the highest perfection, the spiritual world and its laws were revealed. He likewise beheld the soul and saw everything that takes place in it. He indicates to it the path to perfection. He is entirely in the vision of God and rapture. The great mysteries of the world above are revealed to him. His works speak to us, for the most part, of deification. He unfolds the philosophy of communion with God, even though he establishes no philosophical system. "The Greek philosophers teach the mastery of words," he writes; "but there are other philosophers, unlearned in words, who rejoice and take enjoyment in the Grace of God." The authentic philosophy is ascetic struggle, the acquirement of the Spirit.

Palladius says of St. Macarius (Lausiac History, ch. 17) that he lived precisely as a stranger on this earth, being dead to the world and earthly concerns, entirely caught up in vision and in conversation with God.

Because the Spiritual Homilies of St. Macarius are a description of spiritual conditions based on personal experience, their language is clear and expressive and attains a remarkable imagery and power. In them can be felt a profound knowledge of Scripture, and always it is its deepest spiritual meaning that is revealed.

THE SPIRITUAL HOMILIES I.
The Original Condition of Man

NEARNESS TO GOD. There is no nearness and kinship equal to that of the soul with God, and God with souls. He placed in the soul understanding, will, a sovereign mind. And he enthroned in the soul yet another great refinement, and made it easily moved, light-winged, indefatigable, granting it to come and go in a single instant and in thought to serve Him, when the Spirit wishes. In a word, He created it so that it might become a bride and companion of Him, as has been said: He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit with the Lord (I Cor. 6:17).

SOVEREIGNTY. GLORY AND AUTHORITY. Therefore, "man is more precious than all other creatures—I even dare to say, not only those visible, but also those invisible, that is, the ministering spirits. For it was not of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel that God said: Let us create in Our image, after Our likeness (Gen. 1:26), but He said this of the mental essence of man, I mean the immortal soul."

The mind was originally pure, remaining in its own rank, and it beheld its Master; and Adam, remaining in purity, reigned over his thoughts and was in a blessed condition, being covered with Divine glory. Thus, in Paradise Adam was illuminated by the glory which was from the beginning, like the face of Moses. The image of Moses with the veil is an image dear to Saint Macarius.

Adam was chiefly endowed with authority, including authority over the elements and over beasts. Having deceived Adam, "the enemy deprived him of authority and proclaimed himself prince of this world; whereas from the beginning, by God's decree, the prince of this world and master of visible things was man: for fire did not vanquish him, nor did water drown him, nor beasts harm him, nor poison act upon him."

FREEDOM OF WILL. Besides authority, another special, great gift to man was freedom. This freedom of choice, freedom of will, "authority over oneself" (autokousia) was given to man and is an inalienable characteristic of him. Grace only inspires, but it does not compel. Just like sin itself, it can never definitively extinguish freedom.

"The visible creation is bound by a kind of unmovable nature"; it has no will and cannot leave its own condition. "But you were created in the image and likeness of God, because, just as God is free and does what He wills, so are you free. If you should wish to perish, your nature is easily bent to this. If you wish to spew out blasphemy, make poison, or kill someone, no one opposes you or forbids you."

II. Man's Condition after the Transgression.
The Struggle for Salvation.

THE POWER OF DARKNESS. The authentic life of man is only in God. Having fallen away from God in the transgression, man began to live a false life, a "life of death." The serpent becomes a kind of "second soul" to the soul, defiling it "by a sinful word," pouring into the soul a certain dark, hidden power of darkness, and enveloping and muffling it with a "porphyry of darkness," a purple of obscurity. The "satanic darkness" is not merely a symbol or comparison, an image or metaphor; it is just as real as the Divine light, and it is a certain material covering, obscurity, fog. Evil, penetrating into the soul through the heart, flows there like water in a pipe, penetrating the whole human nature.

Having taken possession of the soul, satan lays it waste and puts his seal upon it; and finally he is enthroned in the mind, the heart, and the body. Such a condition is possession, woundedness.

THE PLEDGE OF SALVATION IN FREEDOM. Despite this, however, human nature is not converted into something evil. Evil is not mixed in with the soul, but remains external and foreign to it, and a man is not utterly deprived of his freedom.

Thus, freedom was not lost after the transgression: "The freedom which God gave man in the beginning remains in him." Even though evil acts in us with all power and palpableness, instilling every impure desire, still it is joined to us, not as some say, like the mixture of wine with water, but as the wheat and tares grow each by itself in the same field, or as the thief and the master of the house are separate in the same house." "Thus has sin become admixed to the soul; but both sin and the soul retain their own nature." Hence the possibility of rebirth, no matter how far a man may have fallen. But by its own powers alone the soul cannot be delivered from the power of the devil and death.

THE DISPENSATION OF GOD. It was for this that Christ came down to earth: so as to deliver the soul from this power. The Lord came to death, descended to hell, commanded death to spew up the souls from hell and return them to Him for restoration to life. "And the evil powers in trembling gave up the imprisoned Adam... A dead body conquered and killed the serpent that dwelt and crawled in the heart. A dead body conquered the living serpent."

The Lord descended once into hell, but He continually descends, in the likeness of this descent, into the "dark depths of each heart," and ploughs it with the wood of the Cross and uproots its tares. The power of satan is crushed, but access to the soul has not been closed to him; there must be a battle with him, but Christ, the "Helper and Protector," combats together with the combattant.

The Lord came also so as to trace out anew in the human heart the heavenly image and restore to the soul the wings of the spirit, so as to make us partakers of the Divine nature, "to make of believers in Him a new mind, a new soul, new eyes, a new hearing, a new spiritual tongue, and make of men new bottles, so as to pour into them a new wine: His Spirit."

THE BEGINNING OF REBIRTH. But for this it is necessary that a man first understand, then love, and strive with his will. Everything depends on the will of man: "If one does not approach the Lord of his own will and with all his free will, and will not ask Him with complete faith, he will not receive healing." "And if one is not directed toward Him ceaselessly and does not despise everything else, the Lord will not inscribe in Him His image by means of His light." Thus, "the heart of the struggler is an arena; there the evil spirit battles with the soul, and God and the Angels behold the struggle."

DETERMINATION AND HOPE. Further, St. Macarius teaches that in the soul there must be formed determination, so that no matter what might be directed against it, enduring everything in the midst of thousands of temptations, it will say: "Even if I die, I will not forsake Him" (that is, the Lord, for the benefit of sin and the enemy).

"A Christian likewise should have the hope and joy of the future Kingdom and deliverance, and say: 'If I am not delivered today, I will be delivered on the morrow.'" (Here a comparison is made with one who plants a vineyard, with a house builder, and a farmer, who await in the future the reward of their labors.) "So also here: If a man will not have before his eyes joy and hope that he will receive deliverance and life, he will be unable to endure sorrows and accept the burden and go on the narrow path."

HUMILITY. Salvation must be accomplished in great humility. If one does not have this, "he is given over to satan and is stripped bare of the Grace of God already granted him, and his self-esteem is uncovered, for he is naked and poor." It is a great scandal and danger to feel oneself to be advanced, to have entered a safe harbor — then suddenly the waves will rise again, and a man will see himself again in the midst of the sea, where there are only water and sky and imminent death.

UNCEASINGNESS OF THE BATTLE. THE SNARES OF THE ENEMY. The struggle must be unceasing and must never be stopped; otherwise the soul again will fall under the power of satan. This begins when, having lost vigilance, a soul becomes attached to earthly cares and impressions. This draws after it the cutting asunder of the spirit, and thanks to this, sharpness of sight is dulled and the soul ceases to see its own wounds and secret passions, becomes incautious, and forgets that it must "wage warfare and battle." Satan begins by instilling good thoughts and drawing one into "refined and good-seeming" undertakings; and the soul, unnoticed by itself, falls into "the nets of diabolic perdition."

GRADUALNESS OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH. Spiritual life is an organic process, like physical growth or coming to maturity. A man grows gradually, in proportion to his struggle, and he has stages of development. And in the period of growth, at the same time as the action of Grace, sin is also present in him. "And do not think that your whole soul has been illuminated: within it there still remains a great pasture-land of vice, and there is still required great labor and effort, in agreement with the Grace which acts upon the soul."

FULFILLMENT OF ALL THE LORD'S COMMANDMENTS. One must also expend effort in order to acquire all the virtues, not limiting oneself to some one virtue. Thus, for example, if one is without prayer and forces himself to acquire prayer, so as to have the grace of prayer, but does not force himself to acquire meekness, humility of wisdom, love, and to fulfill the other commandments of the Lord, and does not take care, does not expend labor and effort in order to advance in them: then, to the extent of his free will and in accordance with his petition, sometimes the grace of prayer will be given him in part, but in other respects he will remain the same as he was before. He will not have meekness because he did not labor for it and did not prepare himself to become meek; he will not have humility of wisdom, because he did not ask for it and did not force himself to it; he will not have love for everyone, because, while asking for prayer, he did not concern himself over this love and did not exert effort for acquiring it. But soon he will lose this grace of prayer also, because he did not give himself over, with all his free will, into fulfilling also the other commandments of the Lord.

ASCENT TO THE ACQUIREMENT OF THE SPIRIT. Spiritual life begins with the struggle of faith; faith passes into hope. Then a man can no longer be drawn into this world by anything, and he "is translated and transported into another world and remains in thought in the higher world of Deity." But if one does not give himself over entirely to seeking the love of Christ and does not concentrate all his efforts toward this single aim, he cannot acquire the Spirit.

For this one must have SELF-RENUNCIATION. The most important weapon for the battler and struggler is to hate oneself, renounce one's own soul, become angry at it, reproach it, oppose one's habitual desires, contend with thoughts, fight with oneself.

SOBRIETY. One must wage warfare first of all in the mind. The goal of the battle is to bar access to evil thoughts not so much by opposition as by placing against them good thoughts and by training oneself in dispassion or indifference to sinful impulses. This is the dying to fleshly life. Thoughts still break into the mind, disturb the soul, but do not deceive it, and therefore do not become enrooted. For this is required effort of will so as "not to listen to vice and not to take enjoyment of it in one's thoughts." (Compare the later teaching on the stages of the devil's attack by means of thoughts.)

THE LORD'S SEAL OF LOVE. But complete deliverance is accomplished only through becoming strengthened in the good by means of firmness and constancy in struggle, by complete devotion to God and love for one's neighbor, because "one cannot be saved other than through one's neighbor." "For purity of heart consists of this: when seeing a sinner or one who is infirm, to have compassion and mercy toward him."

Such love attracts the good will of God and is converted into a mystical, godlike love, in which the very nature of the soul is transmuted. Then the soul is inflamed with "Divine love for Christ" and is united with Him in a mystical union.

He who is not born of the reigning Spirit is not made a son of God and does not receive "the sign and seal of the Lord," and does not have hope. In the last day the Lord will recognize His own by His seal, and if the soul while still in this world does not receive the holiness of the Spirit and is not dissolved in Grace, he is not fit for the Heavenly Kingdom.

III. Deification

THE DIVINE FIRE. Just like St. Anthony the Great, St. Macarius speaks of the "Divine fire" which illuminates and sanctifies souls according to the degree of their struggle. Christians, like lamps burning with one and the same fire, are inflamed and give light by means of one and the same Divine fire of the Son of God.

"The immaterial and Divine fire illuminates and tests souls. This fire acted on the Apostles when they spoke by means of fiery tongues. This fire shone on Paul with a voice and enlightened his mind, while it darkened his sense of sight; for it was not without the flesh that he saw the power of that light. This fire Moses saw in the bush. This fire in the form of a chariot transported Elijah from the earth... This fire banishes demons, uproots sin. It is the power of resurrection, the actuality of immortality, the enlightenment of holy souls, the confirmation of the noetic powers."

MANIFESTATION OF GOD (Epiphany). The limitless and unapproachable God, in His unutterable goodness and condescension, appears to rational creatures in light and fire in order to enter into communion with them, that is, with Angels and the souls of Saints. God diminishes Himself in His unapproachable glory and, becoming transformed, "makes Himself flesh" in order to join Himself to them and become one spirit with them, and in order that the soul worthy of God might be able to perceive immortal life and become a participant of incorruptible glory. "When He wishes, He is fire; and when He wishes, He is unutterable and unspeakable repose... for everything that He wishes is easy for Him."

SONSHIP AND DEIFICATION (Theosis). Man must strive toward deification, must make this his aim. In other words, he must "change his present degraded nature into another, divine nature." And then man becomes a son of God, becomes "greater than himself" and above the stature of the first Adam, since not only does he return to the original purity, but he also becomes deified, although he still remains infinitely far from God and there is not and cannot be anything in common between the nature of man and the nature of God. "And only in His endless, unutterable and unimaginable love and out of compassion does He (the Creator) deign to dwell in this creation, in this rational creature."

THE ACTION OF THE DIVINE FIRE. Grace is gradually enkindled in the soul: at first it dries up and burns natural and evil desires. From this Divine fire the demons melt like wax. Then the soul itself becomes inflamed, and it burns, being penetrated through and through with heavenly fire. The fire is kindled in proportion to the degree of struggle and devotion to and hope in the Lord.

THE GRACE-FILLED CONDITION OF THE PERFECT is diverse. "Sometimes they are made cheerful, as if at a royal banquet, and rejoice with joy and unutterable happiness. Sometimes they are like a bride in divine repose, reposing with her bridegroom. Sometimes, while still in the body, just like the Angels of God they feel in themselves such a wingedness and lightness. And sometimes they are as if in rapture from a beverage, being made joyous and drunk by the Spirit, in the rapture of Divine mysteries. But sometimes they are as if weeping and lamenting over the human race, and, praying for the whole Adam, they pour forth tears and weep, being inflamed with spiritual love for mankind. Sometimes the Spirit kindles them with such joy and love that if it were possible they would contain all men, good and evil, in their hearts. Sometimes in humility of wisdom they so humble themselves before every man that they consider themselves to be the very last and least of all. And sometimes a man becomes as just one among ordinary men."

THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT (Charismata). Through peace and joy Grace is revealed in the heart and wisdom in the mind, and hidden mysteries are revealed. And in this spiritual light there is revealed to man the nature of his own soul, and he sees the soul's image, just as he sees the sun with his eyes; and this image is Angel-like. Self-knowledge gives birth to clairvoyance. The spiritual man knows about everyone, but no one can know or judge about him. And he receives the authority of guidance. His gaze penetrates the world above. He becomes a prophet of heavenly mysteries, "ascends to heaven, and with undoubting assurance takes enjoyment of the wonders that are there."

The degrees of vision are various: "There is perception, there is vision, there is illumination." Illumination is above perception. This is the awareness of the certainty of visions. And something else again is revelation, when the great mysteries of God are revealed. And something else is vision, something far away becomes visible to a man. Contemplations are something revealed within, in the depths of the heart. And there a certain inward, profound and hidden light flashes before the inward eyes.

ASCENT (rapture). And he discerns and sees with these inward eyes his "true Friend, the sweetest and much-desired Bridegroom, the Lord." Many mansions are revealed to him, and he is enriched: "And to the degree that he is enriched, new wonders are shown to him. And the mind is transported in rapture, and the soul is separated from the world and becomes foolish to it by reason of the hidden mysteries." The soul is as it were "dissolved with God." And the Lord clothes the struggler in "life-giving garments of light." And the wind of the Divine Spirit penetrates the whole essence of the soul.

And the Lord receives the soul, "gradually changes it by His own power until He raises it up into His own image. And then it is enthroned with Him unto the endless ages."

THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. Only a few attain such a fullness of rapture, ecstasy, here on earth, and that only for a moment. The fullness of transfiguration will be attained only on the day of resurrection. Then the hidden glory of the Spirit will shine forth in the bodies of the righteous. They will be clothed in the Spirit and will be transported to the heavens, so that the body itself "will reign together with the soul."

The spiritual resurrection of the soul precedes the resurrection of the body: "That heavenly fire of Divinity which Christians receive even now, in this world, within themselves, in the heart, where it acts — this fire, when the body is dissolved, will act also outwardly, and will unite the members anew and perform the resurrection of the dissolved bodies... The heavenly fire will bring forth and renew and resurrect the corrupted bodies." The prefiguration of this resurrection has already been made manifest in the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

Twice in the works of St. Macarius is to be found an interpretation of the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-13). St. Macarius explains that the "oil of rejoicing" with which the wise virgins provided themselves is the Grace of the Holy Spirit, which every man must strive to acquire while still in this life. St. Seraphim of Sarov unfolds this teaching in detail in his well-known "Conversation" with Motovilov.

Some understand by "oil," good works. But works in themselves have no value. It is the enemy who instructs us to perform good for the sake of good, without paying attention to the Grace which is acquired by them. Only that which is done in the name of Christ has a spiritual value.

And thus, as St. Seraphim teaches: "The oil is not works, but the Grace of the All-holy Spirit of God which is received within our nature through them, transforming it (our nature) from corruption to incorruption... from darkness to light, from the cavern of our nature, where the passions are bound like cattle and wild beasts, into a temple of the Divinity, into a most radiant bride-chamber of eternal rejoicing in Christ our Lord."

This Orthodox teaching is directly contrary to the teaching of Roman Catholicism on "works." St. Seraphim was familiar with the teaching of many Holy Fathers, and in the "Conversation" he quotes in particular St. Anthony the Great and St. Macarius the Great.

A NOTE ON "PSEUDO-MACARIUS" AND THE "MESSALIAN ORIGIN" OF THE SPIRITUAL HOMILIES

The above article by Prof. I. M. Kontzevitch (+1965) was written in the best tradition of Orthodox Patristic scholarship, with the purpose of elucidating the spiritual and theological meaning of a basic Orthodox text. In recent centuries heterodox scholars in the West (and those Orthodox scholars who have fallen under their influence) have shifted the center of interest in Patristic studies to an entirely secondary question, that of comparison of texts, establishment of authorship and "influences," and the like. In itself there is nothing reprehensible in such a study, as long as the meaning of the text itself remains primary, and the individual scholar knows enough to trust the judgment of Orthodox tradition over his own personal opinions and whims, and to place any "new discoveries" he may make into the context of that tradition. Alas, in our own times there are very few Patristic scholars of the maturity of Professor Kontzevitch, who, while being familiar with the science of textual criticism, knew how to subordinate it to the higher science of the meaning of Patristic texts.

Occasionally, textual critics do indeed make a discovery which necessitates a revision of some long-standing opinion concerning some text or other; seldom, however, owing to the one-sidedness of their interest, are they able properly to interpret the full significance of their own discoveries, something which can be done only by a true Patristic scholar: one who lives in the tradition of the Fathers and therefore can understand the Patristic texts from within, not as an outward academic exercise. In the case of the "textual criticism" of St. Macarius the Great, the "new discoveries" have caused one-sided scholars to come to utterly absurd conclusions which can only be rejected by sound scholarly judgment.

The authorship by St. Macarius of the Spiritual Homilies has never been doubted in the East, and even among modern Western scholars it was not questioned until the present century. Some scholars began to find his authorship "dubious" because his contemporaries who wrote of his life (Palladius and Rufinus) do not mention any writings of his, and because there is no known association of his name with the text of the Spiritual Homilies for over a century after his death. However, given the fragmentariness of direct literary evidence from that period; the absence especially among great spiritual figures like St. Macarius of any sense of "publishing" or "copyrighting" a spiritual teaching which he did not "invent" but only received from the Holy Spirit and from other Holy Fathers; the fact that the 5th-century writer Gennadius does refer to "an epistle" of St. Macarius, and some manuscripts title the Homilies an "epistle"; and the total lack of any direct proof against the traditional ascription — this argument may be seen to have no weight at all.

However, in the second decade of this century a certain Roman Catholic scholar, Dom L. Villecourt, discovered in the Spiritual Homilies "traces of Messalianism," a heresy which was condemned in 431 at the Council of Ephesus. This Council listed a number of heretical propositions taken from a Messalian book, the Asketikon; this or a similar list has been preserved in the book On Heresies by St. John Damascene, and Villecourt discovered that "traces" of all but two of these 18 sentences are to be found in the Spiritual Homilies, and in a few cases the wording is even identical. This was sufficient for a number of Western scholars to agree that the authorship of St. Macarius was "out of the question," to begin a long (and to this day fruitless) search for the "real author," who must have been a Messalian, and to speculate (on no evidence whatever) on how the work was later "corrected" and made "Orthodox" and then put under the "protection" of the great name of St. Macarius — that is, how a deliberate fraud was perpetrated.

It is significant, however, that these scholars do not know and do not even enquire into the true spiritual and theological doctrine of the Spiritual Homilies. They "play" (as it is called in academic parlance) with a few words (18 short sentences out of 300 pages!) without knowing the meaning and context even of those few words, let alone the whole book and the rich spiritual tradition of which it is an integral part. So far does this "learned ignorance" of some scholars go, that a standard Roman Catholic Patrology (Johannes Quasten, Patrology, Spectrum Publishers, Utrecht/Antwerp, 1966, vol. III, pp. 162-166) devotes four pages to these "textual" arguments, and not one word to the doctrine of the book itself. It is sufficient to repeat blindly "Pseudo-Macarius" in order to be in good repute in such "scholarly" circles.

What is the opinion of sound Orthodox scholarship on the question of the "Messalianism" of the Spiritual Homilies? Obviously, the 18 sentences must be understood in the context of the 300 pages of the whole text, and not vice versa. From the account of this heresy by St. John Damascene (On Heresies, Book 3, ch. 80), it is clear that the Messalians (also known as the Euchites) were a sect based on "enthusiasm," kin to the ancient Montanists and the contemporary "charismatic movement," demanding of its adherents that they receive the Holy Spirit "sensibly" and that they trust their own prayer more than the Church's Mysteries. Most of these sectarians were to be found in monasteries, and their teaching is that of one group of unbalanced monks, who abounded at that time when "going to the desert" had become the fashion. Their teaching had clearly nothing to do with the sound Orthodox spiritual doctrine of St. Macarius.

To take an example: The second of the condemned propositions of the Messalians is "that satan and the demons have hold of the minds of men, and human nature is capable of communion with the spirits of evil." When we know that according to Messalian belief man is in a state of such absolute slavery to the demons that even baptism does not deliver him from them, and that the adherent of this sect must engage in no labor at all except to pray constantly until he feels sin being driven out of him like smoke — then we will certainly agree that this statement is heretical. But here is the corresponding passage in the Spiritual Homilies (Homily 27:19; the corresponding phrases are italicized): "Certainly they are evil spirits, satan and the devils, who have hold of the mind, and put fetters on the soul. The devil is very wily, and has many conjuring tricks, and loopholes, and all manner of shifts, and keeps hold of the ranges and thoughts of the soul, and will not allow it to pray properly and to draw nigh to God. For nature itself is capable of fellowship with the devils and spirits of wickedness, and likewise with Angels and the Holy Spirit. It is the temple of satan, or the temple of the Holy Spirit. Examine your mind, brethren; which are you in fellowship with? Angels, or devils?" This is perfectly Orthodox doctrine, known in the experience of every Orthodox Christian who is laboring for his salvation; it can be found in the New Testament. Who borrowed from whom? The Messalian doctrine is clearly a twisted version of the Orthodox doctrine, taken out of context and made to serve a dualistic philosophy.

The same thing is true of the other condemned propositions of the Messalians (save for those that have no equivalent at all in the Spiritual Homilies). No sober scholar could possibly find "traces of Messalianism" in the writings of St. Macarius. Indeed, is not the very fact that the Messalian propositions seem to have appeared in written form precisely between the years 390 and 431 (see Quasten, vol. III, p. 164) a convincing evidence that the Spiritual Homilies from which they were taken were in circulation very soon after the death of St. Macarius in 390? It is quite impossible for a scholar rightly to understand even the most elementary question of textual comparison if he cannot properly distinguish between Orthodoxy and heterodoxy, and if he himself does not hold Orthodox views. The whole history of this academic fashion — the attempt to bind the name of St. Macarius with the heresy of Messalianism — is only another proof of the hopeless one-sidedness of so much of modern scholarship, and indeed the glaring incompetence of heterodox scholars to deal fully and maturely with Orthodox texts.

Academic fashions being what they are, it should be noted that, due to the latest "discovery," "the entire hypothesis of the Messalian origin of the homilies has been challenged" (Quasten, III, 164). True Orthodox scholarship need not be disturbed by the ups and downs of such whimsical "research," and Professor Kontzevitch has rightly ignored it completely.