~January 2.~
_St. Macarius_; _St. Concordius_; _St. Adalard or Alard_.
_St. Macarius._ A. D. 394. Alban Butler says he was a confectioner of
Alexandria, who, in the flower of his age, spent upwards of sixty years
in the deserts in labour, penance, and contemplation. “Our saint,” says
Butler, “happened one day inadvertently to kill a gnat, that was biting
him in his cell; reflecting that he had lost the opportunity of
suffering that mortification, he hastened from his cell for the marshes
of Scetè, which abound with great flies, whose stings pierce even wild
boars. There he continued six months, exposed to those ravaging insects;
and to such a degree was his whole body disfigured by them, with sores
and swellings, that when he returned he was only to be known by his
voice.” The Golden Legend relates of him, that he took a dead pagan out
of his sepulchre, and put him under his head for a pillow; whereupon
certain devils came to affright the saint, and called the dead pagan to
go with them; but the body under the saint said he could not, because a
pilgrim lay upon him, so that he could not move; then Macarius, nothing
afraid, beat the body with his fist, and told him to go if he would,
which caused the devils to declare that Macarius had vanquished them.
Another time the devil came with a great scythe on his shoulder, to
smite the saint, but he could not prevail against him, on account of his
virtues. Macarius, at another time, being tempted, filled a sack with
stones, and bore it many journies through the desert. Seeing a devil
before him in the shape of a man, dressed like “a herawde,” with his
clothing full of holes, and in every hole a phial, he demanded of this
devil whither he went; and why he had so many phials? the devil
answered, to give drink to the hermits; and that the phials contained a
variety of liquors, that they might have a choice, and so fall into
temptation. On the devil’s return, the saint inquired how he had sped;
and the devil answered very evil, for they were so holy that only one
Theodistus would drink: on this information Macarius found Theodistus
under the influences of the phial, and recovered him. Macarius found the
head of a pagan, and asked where the soul of its body was: in hell, said
the head: he asked the head if hell was deep;--the head said deeper than
from heaven to earth: he demanded again, if there were any there lower
than his own soul--the head said the Jews were lower than he was: the
saint inquired if there were any lower than the Jews--the head answered,
the false Christian-men were lower than the Jews, and more tormented:
there the dialogue between the saint and the head appears to have ended.
Macarius seems, by the Golden Legend, to have been much annoyed by the
devil. In a nine days’ journey through a desert, at the end of every
mile he set up a reed in the earth, to mark his track against he
returned; but the devil pulled them all up, made a bundle of them, and
placed them at Macarius’s head, while he lay asleep, so that the saint
with great difficulty found his way home again.
_St. Adalard_, according to Butler, was grandson of Charles Martel,
brother to king Pepin, and cousin-german to Charlemagne, who created him
a count: he left his court in 773, became a monk at Corbie in Picardy,
died in 827, aged seventy-three, and wrought miracles, which procured
his body to be enshrined with great pomp in 1010, a history of which
solemnity is written by St. Gerard, who composed an office in St.
Adalard’s honour, because through his intercession he had been cured of
a violent head-ache.--The same St. Gerard relates seven other miracles
by St. Adalard of the same nature. Butler says, his relics are still at
Corbie, in a rich shrine, and two smaller cases, except a small portion
given to the abbey of Chelles.
* * * * *
The first Monday after new year’s day is called Handsel Monday in some
parts of Scotland, and is observed by merry-making. In sir J. Sinclair’s
“Statistical Account,” it is related of one William Hunter, a collier,
that he was cured in the year 1758 of an inveterate rheumatism or gout,
by drinking freely of new ale, full of barm or yeast. “The poor man had
been confined to his bed for a year and a half, having almost entirely
lost the use of his limbs. On the evening of Handsel Monday, as it is
called, some of his neighbours came _to make merry_ with him. Though he
could not rise, yet he always took his share of the ale, as it passed
round the company; and, in the end, became much intoxicated. The
consequence was, that he had the use of his limbs the next morning, and
was able to walk about. He lived more than twenty years after this, and
never had the smallest return of his old complaint.” This is a fact
worth remembering, as connected with chronical complaints.