Macarius the Great of Egypt
c. 300 AD — 391 AD · Feast day: January 15
A cowherd from the Nile Delta, Macarius the Great became one of the founding fathers of desert monasticism — drawing so many disciples to the Scetic wilderness that the entire Nitrian region came to bear his name. When falsely accused of seduction, he bore the slander in silence for months until God vindicated him through the accuser's own agonized confession, then fled deeper into the desert to escape the fame that followed.