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Macarius Magnes (Greek: Μακάριος Μάγνης), sometimes referred to as Macarius of Magnesia, is the author of a work of Christian apologetics contesting the writings of a Neo-Platonic philosopher. He was unknown for centuries until the discovery of a manuscript at Athens in 1867. This work is called Ἀποκριτικός πρὸς Ἕλληνας (Apokritikós prós Éllinas) in Greek, and Apocriticus in Latin. It agrees in its dogmatics with Gregory of Nyssa, and is valuable on account of the numerous excerpts from the writings of the pagan opponent of Macarius. Macarius does not directly name the "Hellene" he is quoting from and criticizing, but it is most commonly speculated to be the philosopher Porphyry, who wrote a lost work called Against the Christians. The other named possibility mentioned is Hierocles's the Lover of Truth. It is also possible that whoever this opponent was, their name was lost to history and otherwise unrecorded in surviving documents.
He may be the Macarius, bishop of Magnesia, who, at the Synod of the Oak in 403, brought charges against Heraclides, bishop of Ephesus, the friend of John Chrysostom, although Adolf Harnack dated him in the late third century.[1]
Like Macarius the Younger, this Macarius is frequently confused with Macarius of Egypt.
- ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.