Macarius of Kaniv

Venerable Martyr Macarius of Kaniv (Macarius Tokarevsky, 1605-1678) was archimandrite of Pinsk, Ovruch, Kaniv and Pereyaslav, a defender of Orthodoxy in the Belarusian and Ukrainian lands, and a martyr, killed by Tatars on 7 September 1678 when he defended the monastery's sacred vessels. He is venerated in the synaxes of Belarusian and Volhynian saints. He is commemorated on 7 September, the day of his martyrdom, and on 13 May, the day of the translation of his relics.

Life

He was born in 1605 at Ovruch in Volhynia, in a noble family, according to some sources Tokarevsky, to others Torsky, known for zeal for Orthodoxy. Between 1614 and 1620 he studied at the Dormition Monastery of Ovruch. After the death of his parents he received monastic vows at the same monastery, about the age of twenty-⁠five. He was sent to the Entrance Monastery at Kupyatichi and was ordained hierodeacon, around 1630, and then hieromonk. In 1638 Metropolitan Peter Mohyla named him abbot of the Resurrection Monastery at Kamenets, in a time of attacks by Uniates on the Orthodox, and over nine years the monastery was attacked several times by Uniates and Dominicans, who stole church property. Between 1656 and 1659 he headed the Epiphany Monastery in Pinsk. From 1660 he was archimandrite and abbot of the Dormition Monastery at Ovruch. In 1671, after the plundering of Ovruch by Tatars, he left the monastery and went to the Kiev Caves Lavra.

With the blessing of the church authorities he was appointed abbot of the Dormition Monastery at Kaniv, on the Dnieper, in a border region exposed to attacks. There he was a spiritual guide and organizer of monastic life. According to tradition he worked miracles, healed a blind man and had foresight: two years before his death he foresaw the destruction of the monastery and his martyrdom, as well as famine and Polish and Tatar invasions.

Martyrdom

In September 1678, in the siege of Kaniv, the monastery was attacked by bands of Crimean Tatars and Turks who wished to plunder its treasures. Archimandrite Macarius went out to meet them on the church porch, with the cross in his hand, and refused to give up the valuables. According to the Serbian source, they began to beat him and asked where the monastery's gold was, and he answered that his gold was in heaven, not on earth. The Tatars tortured him, hanging him by hands and feet between two posts, and then, on 7 September 1678, after three days of torment according to some sources, cut off his head. The monastery was burned. The body was found untouched and buried under the altar.

The relics

Because of the danger of new attacks, in 1688, ten years after the martyrdom, the relics were found incorrupt and moved, on 13 (26) May, to the church of the Mikhailovsky monastery at Pereyaslav. In 1942 they were taken to the Holy Trinity church in Cherkasy, and since 1965 they have lain in the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Cherkasy, where they are a place of pilgrimage. A monument to him stands before the Saint George Cathedral at Kaniv and another at Ovruch. He is commemorated on 13 May, on 7 September and in the synaxes of Belarusian and Volhynian saints.