St Hilarion - A Bi-Ritual Saint

St Hilarion, called 'the Great' in the East is celebrated on 21 October by both the Western and Eastern Churches.

From the West:

Hilarion was born at Abatha in Palestine (near Gaza) to pagan parents in about 292 AD. He was sent to study at Alexandria where he became famous for his talents and the purity of his morals. He embraced the Christian religion and made wonderful progress in faith and charity. He was constantly in the church, devoted himself to prayer and fasting, and was full of contempt for the enticements of pleasure and earthly desires. The fame of Saint Anthony had then spread over all Egypt. Hilarion, desirous of seeing him, went to the wilderness and stayed two months with him learning his manner of life. He then returned home but on the death of his parents he bestowed his goods on the poor, and though only 15 years old, returned to the desert. He built himself a little cell scarcely large enough to hold him, and there he slept on the ground. He never changed nor washed the sackcloth he wore, saying it was superfluous to look for cleanliness in a hair-shirt.

Hilarion devoted himself to reading and studying the holy Scriptures. His food consisted of a few figs and the juice of herbs, which he never took before sunset. His mortification and humility were wonderful, and by means of these and other virtues he overcame many terrible temptations of the evil one, and cast innumerable devils out of the possessed in many parts of the world. Hilarion gathered many disciples around him and founded many monasteries in Palestine. In 357 he visited the tomb of Saint Antony in Egypt, and afterwards, to escape from the crowds who continually thronged about him seeking the cure of their maladies, he kept travelling from country to country. He visited Egypt, Sicily, Dalmatia, and Cyprus where he died in 371. In his last agony he exclaimed: “Go forth, my soul, why do you fear? Go forth, why do you hesitate? You have served Christ for nearly seventy years, and you fear death?”

Dom Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“Monks were unknown in Syria before Saint Hilarion,” says his historian Saint Jerome. “He instituted the monastic life in that country, and was the master of those who embraced it. The Lord Jesus had his Anthony in Egypt and his Hilarion in Palestine, the former advanced in years, the latter still young.” Now our Lord very soon raised this young man to such glory that Anthony would say to the sick who came to him from Syria attracted by the fame of his miracles: “Why take the trouble to come so far, when you have near you my son Hilarion?” And yet Hilarion had spent only two months with Anthony, after which the patriarch had said to him: “Persevere to the end, my son, and your labour will win you the delights of Heaven.” Then, giving a hair-shirt and a garment of skin to this boy of fifteen whom he was never to see again, he sent him back to sanctify the solitudes of his own country, while he himself retired farther into the desert.

The enemy of mankind, foreseeing a formidable adversary in this new solitary, waged a terrible war against him. Even the flesh, in spite of the young ascetic’s fasts, was Satan’s first accomplice. But without any pity for a body so frail and delicate, as his historian says, that any effort would have seemed sufficient to destroy it, Hilarion cried out indignantly: “Ass, I will see that you kick no more. I will reduce you by hunger, I will crush you with burdens, I will make you work in all weathers. You will be so pinched with hunger, that you will think no more of pleasure.” Vanquished in this quarter, the enemy found other allies through whom he thought to drive Hilarion by fear back to the dwellings of men. But to the robbers who fell on his poor wicker hut, the Saint said smiling: “He who is naked has no fear of thieves.” And they, touched by his virtue, could not conceal their admiration and promised to amend their lives. Then Satan determined to come in person, as he had done to Anthony, but with no better success. No trouble could disturb the serenity attained by that simple, holy soul. One day the demon entered into a camel and made it mad so that it rushed on the Saint with horrible cries. But he only answered: “I am not afraid of you: you are always the same, whether you come as a fox or a camel.” And the huge beast fell down tamed at his feet.

There was a harder trial yet to come from the most cunning artifice of the serpent. When Hilarion sought to hide himself from the immense concourse of people who besieged his poor cell, the enemy maliciously published his fame far and wide, and brought to him overwhelming crowds from every land. In vain he quitted Syria and travelled the length and breadth of Egypt. In vain, pursued from desert to desert, he crossed the sea and hoped to conceal himself in Sicily, in Dalmatia, in Cyprus. From the ship which was making its way among the Cyclades he heard in each island the infernal spirits calling one another from the towns and villages and running to the shores as he passed by. At Paphos where he landed the same concourse of demons brought to him multitudes of men, until at length God took pity on His servant and discovered to him a place inaccessible to his fellow-men, where he had no company but legions of devils who surrounded him day and night. Far from fearing, says his biographer, he took pleasure in the neighbourhood of his old antagonist whom he knew well, and he lived there in great peace the last five years before his death.

To be a Hilarion, and yet to fear death! “If in the green wood they do these things, what will be done in the dry!” (Luke xxiii. 31) O glorious Saint, penetrate us with the apprehension of God’s judgements. Teach us that Christian fear does not banish love, but on the contrary, clears the way and leads to it, and then accompanies it through life as an attentive and faithful guardian. This holy fear was your security at your last hour. May it protect us also along the path of life, and at death introduce us immediately into Heaven!

From the East:

Saint Hilarion the Great was born to pagan parents in the year 291 in the Palestinian village of Thabatha near Gaza. As a young man, he was sent to Alexandria for his education. There he became acquainted with Christianity and was baptized. After hearing an account of the angelic life of Saint Anthony the Great (January 17), Hilarion went to meet him, desiring to study with him and learn what is pleasing to God. Hilarion soon returned to his native land to find that his parents had died. After distributing his family’s inheritance to the poor, Saint Hilarion went forth into the desert surrounding the city of Maium.

In the desert, the Saint endured violent struggles with impure thoughts, vexations of the mind, and the burning passions of the flesh, but he defeated them through heavy labour, fasting and fervent prayer. The devil sought to frighten him with phantoms and apparitions. While he was praying Saint Hilarion would sometimes hear children crying, women wailing, and the roaring of lions and other wild beasts. He understood that the demons were causing these terrors in order to drive him out of the wilderness. He overcame his fear by resorting to fervent prayer. Once, some thieves fell upon Saint Hilarion, and he persuaded them to forsake their lawless life by the power of his words.

Soon all of Palestine heard about Saint Hilarion and of the miracles he worked. The Lord granted the holy ascetic the power to cast out unclean spirits. With this gift of grace he loosed the bonds of many of those who were afflicted. The sick came for healing, and the Saint cured them without asking for any payment, saying that the grace of God is freely received, and must be freely given (Matthew 10:8).

Such was the grace that he received from God that he could tell by the smell of someone’s body or clothing which passion was afflicting his soul. They came to Saint Hilarion desiring to save their souls under his guidance. With his blessing, monasteries began to spring up throughout Palestine. Going from one monastery to another, he instituted a strict ascetic manner of life.

About seven years before his death (+ 371-372) Saint Hilarion moved back to Cyprus, where the ascetic lived in a solitary place until the Lord summoned him to Himself.

Saint Hilarion is sometimes depicted holding a scroll that reads: "The tools of a monk are steadfastness, humility, and love according to God." In iconography, is depicted as an old man with a brown, rush-like beard divided into three points.

Troparion — Tone 8

By a flood of tears, you made the desert fertile, / and your longing for God brought forth fruits in abundance. / By the radiance of miracles you illumined the whole universe! / Our Father Hilarion pray to Christ God to save our souls!

Kontakion — Tone 3

(Podoben: “Today the Virgin...”)
Today we gather to praise you with hymns, / O unfading light of the Spiritual Sun; / for you illumined those in the darkness of ignorance, / leading all to the heights of God, as they cried: / “Rejoice, Father Hilarion, rampart of ascetics.”