Aug 18 – Feria / S Macarius of Pelekete

It’s a Feria, 4th Class, with the color of Green. In this episode: the meditation: “The Extent of Charity”, today’s news from the Church: “Read About God’s Love for Us”, a preview of this week’s episode of The SSPX Podcast: “Audiobook Chapter 13: Herald of Christ the King”, and today’s thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

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Saint Macarius of Pelekete lived during one of those periods of Church history when possessing a religious image could actually get you arrested.

He was born in the eighth century in the Byzantine Empire and was originally named Christopher. As a young man, he entered monastic life, received the name Macarius, and eventually became abbot of the monastery of Pelekete, near the Sea of Marmara in what is now Turkey.

This was the age of Iconoclasm.

Several Byzantine emperors had decided that sacred images of Christ, Our Lady, and the saints encouraged idolatry. Icons were removed from churches, destroyed, or burned. Monks were particularly troublesome to the government because many of them refused to cooperate.

Macarius was one of them.

To understand why he cared so much, it’s important to remember that Christians weren’t worshipping pieces of wood and paint. The controversy touched something much deeper. If Christ truly became man, then He really possessed a human face. Christians believed that depicting that face was a way of defending the reality of the Incarnation.

So Macarius refused to surrender the icons.

And it cost him.

Under Emperor Leo V, the persecution became especially severe. Macarius was arrested and pressured to accept the emperor’s religious policy. When he refused, he was imprisoned and tortured.

Then something unusual happened.

The emperor died.

For a moment, it looked as though Macarius might finally be free. The new emperor, Michael II, released a number of imprisoned monks and churchmen. Macarius was brought before him and again encouraged to compromise.

He still wouldn’t do it.

This time he was exiled to the island of Aphousia in the Sea of Marmara. After years of imprisonment, beatings, and hardship, Macarius died there around the year 830.

His monastery has an interesting archaeological story of its own. Pelekete was one of several important monastic communities clustered along the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara, a region filled with Byzantine monasteries before many disappeared through war, earthquakes, and centuries of political change. Ruins traditionally associated with the monastery survive near modern Tirilye in Turkey, giving us a tangible connection to the world Macarius knew.

What makes Macarius especially interesting is that he died before the controversy was finally settled. He never lived to see the great restoration of sacred images in 843, when icons were solemnly returned to the churches of Constantinople.

He fought for something he would never personally see restored.

And yet, every time we enter a Catholic church and see a crucifix, statue, painting, or stained-glass image of a saint, we’re enjoying a Christian inheritance that men like Macarius suffered to preserve.

Saint Macarius of Pelekete, courageous defender of sacred images and steadfast monk of Christ, pray for us.

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