Monastic Formation and Foundation
Makarios was trained in the monastic life by Saint Sergius of Radonezh at the Holy Trinity Monastery, the great center from which a generation of disciples spread cenobitic and hesychast monasticism into the forests of northern Rus'. After this formation he returned to his native region.
He settled in a dense forest near the Pisma River, establishing what became known as the Makariev Hermitage. When disciples gathered around him, he founded a small monastery about one mile from his original cell and built there a wooden church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
Companionship with Saint Paul of Obnora
Makarios was a friend and close companion of Saint Paul of Obnora, with whom he shares the commemoration of January 10. According to the sources the two saints met before 1414 and maintained close spiritual bonds between their respective monasteries. Saint Paul's foundation on the River Nurma in the Vologda region grew into a larger monastery, while the Pisma hermitage remained small.
Both saints belonged to the wider school of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, whose disciples carried monastic life into the northern wilderness in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Charters issued by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1566 and Tsar Michael in 1625 recognized the Pisma hermitage as connected to Saint Paul's Monastery.
Relics & Shrines
Saint Makarios's relics rest beneath the floor near the Transfiguration Church, with his staff displayed on the tomb cloth.
Local veneration is documented by 1683, when an icon depicting both Makarios and Paul of Obnora is recorded. The sources retrieved do not state a formal date of liturgical glorification; the earliest firm evidence of veneration is this 1683 icon.
Miracles & Traditions
Traditional Accounts: A fire in the 18th century is said to have left the area around the saint's relics miraculously undamaged. Tradition also relates that a person was struck blind for attempting to open his tomb.
