Monastic Foundations
Makarios is remembered above all as a founder of monasteries. After years of ascetic labor at the Pechersky Ascension Monastery, he repeatedly sought greater solitude, and each withdrawal gave rise to a new community. About 1374 he established the Reshma Monastery, dedicated to the Epiphany, near present-day Kineshma on the Volga.
In 1434 he founded the Zheltovodsky Trinity Monastery at Yellow Water Lake, near where the Kerzhenets River joins the Volga. After its destruction and his release from captivity, he blessed a site near Sviyazhsk and then pressed north into the forests of the Unzha River, where in 1439 he founded the Makaryev Unzhensky Monastery, the community most closely associated with his name and his burial.
Captivity and the Journey to Unzha
In 1439 the Khan of Kazan, Olug Moxammat, invaded and destroyed the Zheltovodsky monastery, killing most of its monks and carrying off the nonagenarian abbot and others as prisoners. According to the accounts, the khan was so struck by the holiness of the aged Makarios that he set him free together with a few other Christian captives.
Leading the surviving Christians northward through the wilderness toward the Unzha, Makarios and his company are said to have run out of food and been delivered from starvation, an episode preserved in tradition as the Miracle of the Moose.
Legacy
After his repose, Makarios' grave at Unzha became a place of pilgrimage where healings of various diseases were reported. His intercession was credited with protecting the region from invasion, both against Tatar raids and against Polish forces during the Time of Troubles, and this reputation contributed to his official glorification under Patriarch Philaret about 1619.
The Zheltovodsky monastery was later rebuilt and became the site of the celebrated Makaryev Fair, a major commercial gathering that was the predecessor of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. The monasteries he founded remained important pilgrimage and ecclesiastical centers for centuries.
Relics & Shrines
Makarios' remains were discovered in 1671 during a burial service at the church where he had originally been interred. After a period of disputes over their verification, accompanied by minor reported miracles, they were placed in a reliquary at the Unzhensky Makaryev Monastery; the recovery of the relics is commemorated on October 12.
In 1929 Soviet authorities closed the monastery and transferred most of the relics to the local history museum in Yuryevets, where they remained until 1990. From 1990 to 1995 they were held by the Kostroma Eparchy, and in 1995 the bones and vestments were returned to the Unzhensky Makaryev Monastery.
The head relic had been separated and preserved: a priest's brother is said to have saved it from the Bolsheviks after 1929. Following forensic verification, its return was celebrated on March 23, 2006, at the Holy Saviour Cathedral in Nizhny Novgorod. During August 3–7, 2007, the head was carried by boat down the Volga to the Makaryev Zheltovodsky Monastery, where it remains.
Miracles & Traditions
Historically Documented: Following his glorification, reports of healings at his grave and the verification of his recovered relics in 1671 were examined by ecclesiastical authority; Patriarch Philaret's commission to Unzha and his 1619 letter to Tsar Michael confirming the miracles reflect a formal investigation of the cult.
Traditional Accounts: Tradition relates that the infant Makarios grew quiet and smiled joyfully when first brought to church; that the Khan of Kazan freed him out of respect for his holiness; and that his company was saved from starvation on the journey to Unzha in the episode known as the Miracle of the Moose.
