Macarius

Macarius (Greek Makarios, "blessed") was an exceedingly common name in late antiquity, especially among monks and clergy, and the five letters attached to this entry come from four unrelated collections spanning both the Latin West and the Greek East (Jerome, Basil of Caesarea, Paulinus of Nola, and Isidore of Pelusium). These are almost certainly not a single person but several distinct correspondents sharing the same name, conflated under one record. Each Macarius is otherwise little attested and known chiefly as the addressee of the letter in question, most plausibly a monk, presbyter, or pious layman of the 4th-5th centuries given the monastic and ecclesiastical milieu of all four authors. No specific biography, dates, office, or single place of activity can be assigned with confidence, and any such attribution would be invented rather than known.