Macarius of Jerusalem
Bishop of Jerusalem, then officially called Aelia, at the time of the Council of Nicaea. Constantine wrote to him with instructions to build the church at the tomb of Christ.
Macarius was bishop of Jerusalem when the dispute over Arius began; Arius names him among the bishops who opposed him (Theodoret, Church History 1.4). He attended the First Council of Nicaea (Socrates, Church History 1.13), whose seventh canon confirmed the honour traditionally paid to the bishop of Aelia, the Roman name of his city (Council of Nicaea (325) canon 7).
After the tomb of Christ had been uncovered, Constantine wrote to him to say that the church built there should surpass every other, and asked him to report what materials and workmen were needed (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.30–32). Eusebius, who preserves the letter, says no more about him. Rufinus, about seventy-five years later, makes him the bishop who identified the cross of Christ for Helena, among three that were found, by a healing (Rufinus, Church History 10.7–8 (book 1, chapters 7–8 in Migne)). See the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Is Dedicated.
In the timeline
- AD 335, firm dateThe Church of the Holy Sepulchre Is Dedicated
Constantine has a temple cleared from the site in Jerusalem where a rock tomb is uncovered, and builds a great basilica beside it. Bishops from across the East dedicate it in 335. Later writers add that his mother Helena found the cross there.