Roman Martyrology: Bishop of Jerusalem during the First Council of Nicaea.  According to Eusebius he found the Holy Sepulchre and was ordered by Constantine to erect an impressive church on the site.  In a late fourth-century legend made canonical by Rufinus of Aquileia, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, he assisted St. Helena in the identification of the True Cross.

Etymology: From the Greek μακαρ (makar) meaning "blessed, happy".

SHORT BIOGRPAHY

He became the bishop of Jerusalem in 314 and was a foe of the Arian heresy. He also participated in and signed the documents of the Council of Nicaea, and helped formulate the Nicene Creed.

St. Athanasius, in one of his orations against Arianism, refers to St. Macarius as an example of "the honest and simple style of apostolical men." The date 312 for Macarius's accession to the episcopate is found in St. Jerome's version of Eusebius of Caesarea's Chronicles; Tillement .

About 325 he accompanied Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine I in her successful search at Jerusalem for the True Cross. When Saint Helena discovered a collection of crosses, one of which was the True Cross, Macarius suggested identifying the real one by touching them to a seriously ill woman, and seeing which one cured her to identify the real one. One cured the woman instantly.

At the command of Emperor Constantine. Macanus built a church over Christ's sepulcher, which was consecrated as a basilica on September 13.

His death must have been before the Council of Tyre, in 335, at which his successor, Maximus, was apparently one of the bishops present.