Saint Macario

Macarius the Abbot, or Saint Macarius of Collesano (Collesano – Oliveto Citra, December 16, 1000), was an Italian monk; he is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church. As reported by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Orestes of Jerusalem, Macarius was born in Collesano, in the modern-day province of Palermo. He lived during the Arab rule of Sicily, which began in 827 when Euphemius of Messina invited the Arabs, and ended in 1061 with the conquest by Robert Guiscard. Father Francesco Ciccone, a native of Teora and archpriest of Santa Maria della Misericordia in Oliveto Citra, incorrectly dated the birth of Saint Macarius in his 1907 work because he was unaware of the hagiography by Orestes, which was only rediscovered at the end of the 19th century by the Vice-Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, Monsignor Giuseppe Cozza-Luzi. Regarding his name, Macarius (from the Greek makarios, meaning blessed or happy) was undoubtedly a name commonly used among Christians in the Near East. Thus, the name of our Saint Macarius follows the tradition of Eastern monasticism—as there had been numerous other saints named Macarius—given that Sicily and almost the entire territory of Southern Italy remained possessions of the Eastern Roman Empire until the Norman conquest.