From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

October 21st - St. Hilarion

Born in Tabatha (south of Gaza), c. 291; died 371. Saint Hilarion,
whose life is written by Saint Jerome, was born to pagan parents. At
the age of 15, while studying at Alexandria, the great center of
culture and learning, he was converted to Christianity and baptized.
Shortly afterwards he traveled to the Thebaid to see Saint Antony of
the Desert and after staying with him for two months returned to Gaza,
where he found that his parents had died during his absence. He
divided his inheritance among his brothers and the poor; then, free of
all worldly ties, he returned to the desert where with the grace of
God to help him, he struggled against the devil and the temptations of
his body.

For the next few years he lived a life of prayer, asceticism and
solitude. His place of retreat was on a low-lying and marshy island
near the sea, about 6 or 7 miles from Majuma (Maiuma). His only
shelter was a hut of woven reeds and rushes. Later, when he built a
cell, it was barely large enough to house him. He cut his hair only
once a year, at Easter, and lived off a few figs and vegetables that
he grew in a small garden.

Austere though his life was, it soon attracted a large number of
disciples who came to live near him, while the miracles that he
performed also drew crowds of sick people hoping for cures. Many
heathen were converted to Christianity by his exhortations and
example, and by the miracles attributed to him: of these, his enabling
one Italicus to win a chariot race must have made a special appeal to
the backers of Italicus.

Until he was 65 years old, Hilarion continued to live at Majuma,
baptizing those who came to him and preaching less by words than by
the example of his life. However, the feeling grew on him that his
work there had been done and that they could manage without him. "I
have returned to the world and am receiving my reward in this life,"
he said. "If I wish to be found deserving of divine mercy, I must hide
myself to pray and suffer."

His disciples and the thousands of people who gathered round him at
first refused to let him go. Hilarion refused to eat so long as they
held him a virtual prisoner, and after a fast which lasted a week he
was allowed to go.

Around 360 he left Majuma for Egypt. Accompanied by 40 anchorites he
first visited the tomb of Saint Antony in the Thebaid, where once
again many miracles were performed.

The remaining years of Saint Hilarion's life were a sad--and perhaps
somewhat neurotic--quest for solitude. He was harassed in Egypt and,
Julian the Apostate having ordered his arrest, he had to flee to the
Libyan desert.

Soon he decided to move on, this time with only two companions.
Seeking silence and obscurity, he crossed the sea to Sicily, hoping
that no one would there recognize him. Here, earning his bread by
collecting and selling firewood, the old man was found by one of his
early disciples, Hesychius. His fame soon spread and he was sought out
by pilgrims and by the sick.

Hilarion soon became restless again, and Hesychius tried to satisfy
him by taking him to Epidaurus (Dubrovnik) on the Dalmatian coast,
where no one had heard of Hilarion. But the same thing happened again,
and so under cover of night he and Hesychius crossed from Dalmatia to
Cyprus, where he settled at Paphos. However miracles still followed
him. Demoniacs, sick people and crowds of the faithful and the curious
came to visit him until, with the help of his disciple Hesychius, he
found an inaccessible retreat high on a mountain, where he remained
for the rest of his life.

When he felt that he was about to die, Hilarion wrote to Hesychius and
made him the heir of his Gospel and his short cloak=E2=80=94the sum total o=
f
his possessions. He died in 372, at the age of 80, and was at first
buried near Paphos, but Hesychius secretly removed his body and
re-buried it at Majuma, the site of his first miracles and of his
victory over himself (Attwater, Encyclopedia, Walsh).

In art Hilarion is portrayed as an old hermit mounted on an ass,
driving off the devil, dragon, or basilisk with the sign of the Cross. Sometimes Hilarion is shown (1) with a pile of wood near him; (2)
clothed in skins; (3) holding an hourglass; or (4) with a book
inscribed Quid est o anima mea quid dubitas. He is venerated in Cyprus
and Sicily (Roeder).

Reflection: The Saints fasted, toiled, and wept, not only for love of
God, but in fear of damnation. How shall we, with our self-indulgent
lives and unexamined consciences, face the judgement seat of Christ?


Saint Quote:
He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands.
-- Saint Benedict of Nursia

Bible Quote:
They who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions
and desires. =C2 (Gal. 5:24)


<><><><>
On the Holy Trinity

There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is His subsistent
Wisdom and Power and Eternal Image: perfect Begetter of the perfect
Begotten, Father of the only-begotten Son.

There is one Lord, Only of the Only, God of God, Image and Likeness of
Deity, Efficient Word, Wisdom comprehensive of the constitution of all
things, and Power formative of the whole creation, true Son of true
Father, Invisible of Invisible, and Incorruptible of Incorruptible,
and Immortal of Immortal and Eternal of Eternal.

And there is One Holy Spirit, having His subsistence from God, and
being made manifest by the Son, to wit to men: Image of the Son,
Perfect Image of the Perfect; Life, the Cause of the living; Holy
Fount; Sanctity, the Supplier, or Leader, of Sanctification; in whom
is manifested God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God the
Son, who is through all.

There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty,
neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing either
created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as
if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period
it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the
Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without
change, the same Trinity abideth ever.
-- Saint Gregory of Neocaesarea

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