Wednesday, October 21

Golden Age · c. 291–371

St Hilarion the Great

Founder of monasticism in the Holy Land

Hilarion was born at Tabatha near Gaza in Palestine and sent to study in Alexandria, where he became a Christian. Hearing of Anthony the Great, he visited him in the Egyptian desert and resolved to imitate his life. Returning to Palestine at about eighteen and finding his parents dead, he gave away his inheritance and settled in the wilderness near Majuma, the port of Gaza, enduring severe fasting, demonic assaults, and years of obscurity. As his holiness and miracles became known, disciples gathered, and he became the father of monasticism in Palestine, as Anthony was in Egypt. Fleeing the crowds that his fame attracted, he wandered in his last decades through Egypt, Sicily, Dalmatia, and finally Cyprus, where he died. His disciple Hesychius carried his relics back to Palestine. His Life was written by St Jerome, who spread his fame throughout the Christian world.

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