St. Hilarion

St. Hilarion was born around 291 at Tabatha, near Gaza in Palestine, into a pagan family, and died around 371 on the island of Cyprus. Sent to study at Alexandria, he became a Christian, and hearing of the great St. Anthony he journeyed into the Egyptian desert to spend time with him and learn the monastic way of life. Then, still a young man, he returned home and withdrew into the wilderness near Gaza to live as a hermit in extreme poverty and prayer.

As disciples gathered around his reputation for holiness and miracles, he became the founder and father of monasticism in Palestine, much as Anthony had been in Egypt. Longing always for deeper solitude and fleeing the fame that pursued him, he wandered in his later years through Egypt, Sicily, Dalmatia, and finally Cyprus, where he died. His life was written by St. Jerome, who spread his memory throughout the Church, and he is venerated as a saint and a pioneer of the monastic life in the Holy Land.