The spiritual vocabulary of ps.- macarius

Abstract The author of the texts preserved under the names ‘Macarius’ and ‘Symeon’ writes anonymously. The various attributions are attempts of later admirers of these writings to attribute them to monastic figures of universal renown and respect. The significance of these particular names has been discussed in other works, and will not be recapitulated here.1 In the absence of a solution to the problem of authorship, the best course is to use the name ‘Ps.-Macarius’, which conveniently indicates both anonymity and the most familiar alias. The writings can be placed in the second half of the fourth century, probably in the 380s; Gregory of Nyssa had access to at least one text, the so-called Epistola magna, and used it as the basis for his own De instituto christiano.