St Hilarion
| Saint Hilarion | |
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Hilarion the Great, by Basil II, c.1000 (Vatican Library)
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| Abbot | |
| Born | 291 AD Thabatha, south of Gaza in Syria Palaestina |
| Died | 371 AD Cyprus |
| Venerated in |
Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Churches Coptic Church |
| Canonized | Pre-Congregation |
| Feast | October 21 |
Hilarion (291–371) was an anchorite who spent most of his life in the desert according to the example of Anthony the Great.
The chief source of information regarding Hilarion is the biography written by St. Jerome. The life of Hilarion was written by Jerome in 390 at Bethlehem. Its object was to further the ascetic life to which he was devoted. It contains, amidst much that is legendary, some statements which attach it to genuine history, and is in any case a record of the state of the human mind in the 4th century.
Hilarion was born in Thabatha, south of Gaza in Syria Palaestina of pagan parents. He successfully studied rhetoric with a Grammarian in Alexandria. It seems that he was converted to Christianity in Alexandria. After that, he shunned the pleasures of his day—theatre, circus and arena—and spent his time attending church. According to St. Jerome, he was a thin and delicate youth of fragile health.
After hearing of Saint Anthony, whose name (according to St. Jerome), "was in the mouth of all the races of Egypt" Hilarion, at the age of fifteen, went to live with him in the desert for two months. As Anthony's hermitage was busy with visitors seeking cures for diseases or demonic affliction, Hilarion returned home along with some monks. At Thabatha, his parents having died in the meantime, he gave his inheritance to his brothers and the poor and left for the wilderness.
Hilarion went to the area southwest of Majoma, the port of Gaza, that was limited by the sea at one side and marshland on the other. Because the district was notorious for brigandage, and his relatives and friends warned him of the danger he was incurring, it was his practice never to abide long in the same place. With him he took only a shirt of coarse linen, a cloak of skins given to him by St. Anthony, and a coarse blanket. He led a nomadic life, and he fasted rigorously, not partaking of his frugal meal until after sunset. He supported himself by weaving baskets.
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