As a young man, with a strong call to solitude, he constructed near his home a small cell where he prayed continually and wove mats.

[1] At some point before his pursuit of asceticism, Macarius made his living smuggling saltpeter in the vicinity of Nitria, a vocation which taught him how to survive in and travel across the wastes in that area.

His friends and close kin used to call him Paidarion Geron (Ancient Greek: Παιδάριον Γέρων, which when compounded as Paidiogeron[3] led to Coptic: Ⲡⲓⲇⲁⲣ Ⲓⲟⲩⲅⲉⲣⲟⲛ, Pidar Yougiron) which meant the "old young man", i.e. "the young man with the elders' wisdom.

The Elder accepted the youth, guided him in the spiritual science of watchfulness, fasting and prayer, and taught him the handicraft of weaving baskets.

[citation needed] As a hermit, Macarius spent seven years living on only pulse and raw herbs.

The monks were not bound by any fixed rule; their cells were close together, and they met for Divine worship only on Saturdays or Sundays.

When word of this got back to the Emperor Valens and Bishop Lucius of Alexandria, they quickly allowed both men to return home.

At their return on 13 Paremhat, they were met by a multitude of monks of the Nitrian Desert, numbered fifty thousand, among whom were Pishoy and John the Dwarf.

Pope Michael V of Alexandria brought the relics of Saint Macarius back to the Nitrian Desert on 19 Mesori.

The ruins of numerous monasteries in this region support the local tradition that the cloisters of Macarius were equal in number to the days of the year.

These rich young men and women riding horses, surrounded by their decorative hunting dogs have gone on a pleasant journey.