Saint Macaire l'Arménien

Who they were

Macarius (Macaire) is much loved in Flanders as a patron against epidemics, but very little is known of him. The legend makes him an archbishop of Antioch who gave away his property, went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, escaped from Saracen captivity and crossed Europe working miracles. Butler thinks he may have been a bishop of Antioch in Pisidia, but certainly not of Antioch in Syria.

What is sure is that a pilgrim named Macarius was taken in by the monks of Saint-Bavon at Ghent and died there of the plague in 1012. Because the plague stopped after his death, as he had foretold, he was believed to have offered his life for the people.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

A pilgrim bishop who died of plague at Ghent and is invoked against epidemics.