1. Once Macarius saw some palm branches Antony had made into wreathes, and asked for some of them. Antony replied, "Though shall not covet thy neighbor's goods." The branches immediately dried up. Macarius took this as a call to greater poverty of spirit. Antony laid his hands on Macarius and told him, "The spirit of God is on you. You are called to do great things."
2 Trying to get further from the world, and closer to God, Macarius moved to the desert of Nitria in Lower Egypt in 373. At the end of his strength, the devil appeared and said, "Why not ask God for the food and strength to continue your journey?" Macarius answered, "The Lord is my strength and glory. Do not tempt a servant of God." The devil then gave him a vision of a camel laden with food. Macarius was about to eat, but suspected a trap, and so rose to pray first; the camel vanished.
3. A young brother once offered Macarius some very fine grapes. The old fruit dealer was about to eat when he decided to sent them to a brothers who was ill. This brother passed them one he considered more in need of them, and that one did the same, and on and on until the grapes made the rounds of all the cells and returned to Macarius.
4. In old age, Macarius journeyed to a monastery where 1,400 hermits lived under the rigid rule of Saint Pachomius. Macarius was refused admittance. "You are too old to survive the great rigor we have here," Pachomius told him. "One should be trained in it from childhood, or else one cannot stand it. Your health would fail and you would curse us for harming you." Macarius then stood at the abbey gate for seven days and nights - without sleep, without food, without saying a word. Finally, the monks relented and he let him in.
This was in Lent, when there were no limits to self-mortification. Macarius stood in a corner of the monastery in complete silence for all of Lent, living on a few cabbage leaves each Sunday "more to avoid ostentation, than from any real need." The monks became so jealous of this new brother that they took their complaint to Pachomius, who asked God for illumination. When he learned that the old man was Macarius, he went to him and said, "My brother, I thank you for the lesson you have given my sons. It will prevent their boasting about their modest mortifications. You have edified us sufficiently. Return to your own monastery, and pray for us each day." (It's unlikely Pachomius and Macarius met - Pachomius died in 348, a time when Macarius would have been a very young man.)
5. Macarius returned to Skete and began to work on his worst vice - his love of travel. The devil appeared and suggested Macarius go to Rome and chase out the demons there. Torn between travelling for such a good cause, but wishing to fight his vice, Macarius filled a large basket with sand, put it on his back, and set out. When someone offered to help him, he said, "Leave me alone! I am punishing my tormenter. He wishes to lead me, old and weak as I am, on a distant and vain voyage." He then returned to his cell, body broken with fatigue, but cured of his temptation.
