5. ANTONII
DISCIPULUS, the DISCIPLE of ST.
ANTONY, or, of PISPIR (comp. Nos. 1 and
2). Palladius (Hist. Lausiac. 100.25, 26) mentions two disciples of St.
Antony, Macarius and Amathas, as resident with and attendant upon that saint, at Mount Pispir,
Pispiri, or Pisperi, and as having buried him after his death. These are probably the two
brethren mentioned by Athanasius (Vita S. Antonii, c. 21) as having
waited on the aged recluse for the last fifteen years of his life. This Macarius of Pispir has
been by several writers, both ancient and modern, including Rufinus, and perhaps Theodoret,
among the ancients, and Cave and Pritius among the moderns, confounded with one or other of
the Macarii, the Egyptian and the Alexandrian (Nos. 1 and 2); but Bollandus (Proleg. ad Vitam S. Anton. c. v. vi. in Acta Sanct. a. d. 17 Jan.) and Tillemont (Mémoires, vol. viii. p.
806) have shown that there are several reasons for distinguishing them; and there is great
difficulty in reconciling the known circumstances of either of these Macarii with the close
attendance on St. Antony given by Macarius of Pispir. To Macarius of Pispir Possin ascribed
the