Macarius Magnes

Who is Macarius Magnes?

Macarius Magnes is the author of an apology against a Neo-Platonic philosopher of the early part of the fourth century, contained in a manuscript of the fifteenth century discovered at Athens in 1867 and edited by C. Blondel. This work agrees in its dogmatics with Gregory of Nyssa, and is valuable on account of the numerous excerpts from the writings of the opponent of Macarius. These fragments are apparently drawn from the lost "Words against the Christians" of Porphyry or from the "Truth-Loving Words" of Hierocles.

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.

Like Macarius the Younger, this Macarius is frequently confused with Macarius of Egypt.