(BEGINNING OF 5TH CENT.)
[Greek Menaea. Authorities: Theodoret in his Philotheus, c. 13, and
his Ecclesiastical Hist. lib. v. c. 20; Nicephorus Callistus, lib.
xii. 44. Theodoret's mother was under the direction of S.
Macedonius.]
S. Macedonius lived a life of great austerity on barley and water. For
forty-five years he inhabited a dry ditch, after that he spent
twenty-five in a rude cabin.
A sedition having broken out in Antioch, and the people having
overthrown the statue of the Empress Flacilla, Theodosius, the Emperor,
in a fit of rage, ordered the city to be set on fire and reduced to the
condition of a village. Blood would also have been infallibly shed, had
not S. Ambrose obtained from Theodosius, shortly before, the passing of
the law that no sentence against a city should take effect till thirty
days had expired. The Emperor sent his chamberlain, Eleutherius, to
Antioch to execute his severe sentence against the city and its
inhabitants. As he entered the streets lined with trembling citizens, a
ragged hermit, it was Macedonius, plucked him by the cloak and said: "Go
to the Emperor, and say to him from me, You are not only an Emperor,
but a man; and you ought not only to remember what is due to an empire,
but also to human nature. Man was made in the image and likeness of God.
Do not then order the image of God to be destroyed. You pass this cruel
sentence, because an image of bronze has been overthrown. And for that
will you slay living men, the hair of whose head you cannot make to
grow?" When this speech was reported to the Emperor, he regretted his
angry sentence, and sent to withdraw it.