The life of St Macarius the Roman of Mesopotamia
Despite whatever caution he had tried to keep, Macarius did not have the discernment to see through this trial, and he fell into sin with her.
Afterward the Archangel Raphael appeared to him and told him plainly to return to the same cave, for it was there that his prayer of repentance would be heard. He obeyed, and for many years afterward he wore down his own body with fasting, vigil, and self-denial, working to recover the purity he had lost. Near the end of a very long life, three monks wandering from a Mesopotamian monastery in search of some sign for their own salvation came upon his cave and found him still alive; after telling them the whole of his story, both the fall and the decades of repentance that followed it, Macarius sent them away in peace and reposed there alone, unseen by anyone but God. Even the century in which he lived is not stated with certainty in the record that survives, and readers have long been cautioned to prefer the shorter of two surviving accounts of his life, since the longer version carries later additions considered spiritually unreliable.
