Early Life and Episcopal Service
Macarius was born around 1482 in the region of Moscow. In the late fifteenth century he entered the St. Paphnutius Monastery in Borovsk as a monk, advancing through the ranks of reader, subdeacon, deacon, and priest, and acquiring skill as an iconographer. In 1523 Metropolitan Daniel elevated him to archimandrite of a monastery in Mozhaisk.
In 1526 he was appointed Archbishop of Novgorod and Pskov, an office he held until 1542. During his Novgorod years he promoted Muscovite ecclesiastical and political interests and sponsored missionary efforts among the Finno-Ugric peoples in the 1530s.
The Great Menaion Reader
Macarius is principally known for the Great Menaion Reader (Velikie Minei-Chetii), a monumental twelve-volume compilation of saints' lives and other edifying writings arranged according to the months of the church year. The first edition was completed in 1541, during his tenure at Novgorod, with later editions completed in 1552 and 1554.
He also initiated the Stepennaya Kniga (Book of Royal Degrees), a genealogical and historical work that traced the lineage of Ivan IV, controversially connecting it to a purported brother of the Emperor Augustus.
Metropolitan of Moscow
Macarius was elected Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia on 16 March 1542. On 16 January 1547 he arranged and presided over the coronation of Ivan IV as tsar, and in the same year he blessed the tsar's marriage to Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuryeva.
He took an active part in the assemblies (zemsky sobors) of 1547, 1549, and 1550, and during Ivan's Kazan campaign of 1559 he served for a time as head of state.
Church Councils and Canonizations
In 1551 Macarius, together with the tsar, convened the Stoglav Council (Council of the Hundred Chapters), which addressed matters of church discipline, liturgy, and reform. Through a series of synods he directed the canonization of thirty-nine all-Russian saints, an effort that gave a common, nationwide footing to the veneration of figures who had previously been honored only locally.
Repose and Glorification
Macarius died on 12 January 1563 in Moscow and was buried in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin. Although his name appeared in lists of saints as early as the eighteenth century, he was formally glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988. His feast is observed on December 30.
