Who is saint hilarion

He returned to Gaza, when, he gave himself over to extreme fasting and unceasing prayer. Because of the miracles which he soon began to work, he found himself compelled by his growing renown to leave Gaza, to escape from the throngs of people coming to ask his prayers. In his journeys he visited Egypt, and came again with longing to the place where Saint Anthony had lived; but he was not able to remain in any one place for long, since despite all his attempts to conceal himself, the light of the grace that was in him could not be hid.

After passing through Egypt and Libya, and sailing to Sicily, he came at last to Cyprus, where he ended the course of his life at the age of eighty, in the year With the rivers of your tears, you have made the barren desert fertile.

Through sighs of sorrow from deep within you, your labors have borne fruit a hundred-fold. He finally settled on Cyprus, where he died in at about age Hilarion is celebrated as the founder of monasticism in Palestine. Much of his fame flows from the biography of him written by Saint Jerome.

We can learn the value of solitude from Saint Hilarion. Unlike loneliness, solitude is a positive condition in which we are alone with God. Thus he set out, and as soon as he set eyes on him, he changed his former robes to stay with, and learn from him.

From the time he was fifteen years old he lived as a hermit for the rest of his life, dying at the age of eighty in A. This is according to the teachings of Anthony, founder of the oriental monasticism. Ilarion lived in Palestine he is in fact considered the founder of the Palestinian monasticism , in Syria and in Egypt; until he departed from the latter bound for Sicily.

As written by Saint Girolamo, it is expressly stated that Ilarion landed in Pachino, a Sicilian promontory. He then withdrew twenty miles inland to a solitary place where he soon became renowned for his miracles. Joined in Sicily by his disciple Esichio, he let it be known that he was unable to carry on living there. He wanted to travel to a certain barbaric population where his name and language would be unknown and where he could, as a consequence, live in solitude.

Esichio therefore led him through the Adriatic Sea to Epidauro, to a Dalmatian city. Even this far away Ilarion was unable to remain hidden because he was yet again called upon to work miracles. Then he was called upon to stop a tidal wave which he did by drawing three crosses in the sand.

Yet another time, with only a gesture of his hand he forced three pirate ships, who were a threat to the population, to rebound from the coast instead of landing. It is said that the pirates were bewildered by the fact that against their will they were sailing away from the coast. The more they rowed towards the shore, the further away from it they got. After this, Ilarion left Dalmatia in search of a more solitary place.

Saint Girolamo recounts that after a long journey he disembarked on the island of Cyprus from where he wished to return to Egypt, precisely to a place known as Bucolica because in that region there were no Christians, only a ferocious and barbaric population. Esichio managed to convince him to stay in Cyprus, and to retire to a hidden place found about twelve miles from the sea. When he reached the place, Ilarion looked upon it with wonder.