Malchus of Syria

Venerable Malchus of Syria (also called Malchus of Chalcis or of Maronia) was a Syrian monk of the fourth century, who died around 390 and whose life has been preserved for us by Saint Jerome in his work Life of Malchus the Captive Monk, composed in Latin around 391 or 392. He is commemorated on 26 March in the Orthodox Church and in the Eastern Catholic Churches; the Roman Martyrology has him on 21 October. Nothing is known of him apart from Jerome's account. Our input data also gives 301 as the year of death, but this does not fit the rest.

According to Jerome, Malchus was the only child of a farming family from the region of Nisibis. When he reached maturity his parents wished him to marry, but he wanted to become a monk. He left his family home and began monastic life in the desert of Chalcis. The Serbian source says that he was a farmer from near Antioch and that he lived piously from his youth.

After several years as a monk he heard of his father's death and went home to claim his inheritance, leaving the monastery against the direction of his abbot. He joined a group of pilgrims, but on the way they were overtaken by Saracens and sold into slavery.

His master compelled him to marry another slave, captured in the same raid, whose husband had been sold to another master. Faithful to his vocation, Malchus refused to consummate the union and threatened to kill himself. The woman told him that she too wished to live in chastity and proposed to be his partner in purity, without letting the master know that they lived as brother and sister. The Serbian source adds that he brought her to faith in Christ.

The two escaped from slavery by fleeing down a river on inflated goatskins. When their master caught up with them, they hid in a cave, but were tracked down. According to the account, God protected them: a lioness that had her den in the cave with her cubs attacked and killed their pursuers, then left with her cub. The Serbian source says that the lioness killed one Arab, who wanted to enter the cave. On the camels of their dead pursuers they reached a Roman fort under the command of Sabinianus, who let them go free.

Malchus sent his wife to a women's monastery, as she requested, and tried to return to his own monastery, but the abbot was no longer alive. He came to Maronia, to a men's monastery under Bishop Evagrius. For the edification of the monks he often told of the trials he had suffered as a result of his disobedience. He laboured there in asceticism to the end of his life and died in peace. His wife also moved to a women's monastery in Maronia, and in old age the two were again close companions. The Serbian Church commemorates him on 26 March by the Julian calendar, that is 8 April by the Gregorian.