Hilarion
St. Hilarion was an anchorite who spent most of his life in the desert according to the example of Saint Anthony of Egypt.
early life
Hilarion was born in Thabatha, south of Gaza in Palestine of pagan parents. He successfully studied rhetorics with a Grammarian in Alexandria. It seems that he was concerted in Alexandria. After that he shunned the pleasures of his day, theatre, circus and arena and spent his time attending church. According to Jerome, he was a thin and delicate youth of fragile health.
beginnings of monastic life
After hearing of St. Anthony, whose name "was in the mouth of all the races of Egypt" (Jerome), at the age of fifteen, he went to live with him in the desert for two month. As Antony's hermitage was busy with visitors seeking cures for diseases or demonic affliction, he went home together 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.
his time at Majoma
Hilarius went to the area southwest of Eleutheropolis who had been barren for 15 years. After that, he cured blindness, raised children from the dead, healed a paralysed charioteer, expelled demons, and even cured horses affected by evil magic, and a mad Bactrian Camel.
monastery
In time, a monastery grew around his cell, which was so beset by visitors, especially females, that Hilarion fled.
After numerous adventures, always beset by enthusiastic visitors seeking his help, Hilarion died in Cyprus in 371 AD.
sources
His life has been written by by Jerome in 390 AD at Bethlehem. According to Jerome, bishop Epiphanius of
