ST. HILARION THE GREAT (OCT. 21ST)

Edited by Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West)

Commemorated October 21st/November 3th

St. Hilarion the Great was born in the year 291AD in the Palestinian village of Tabatha. He was sent to study in Alexandria, where he met with Christians and accepted Holy Baptism. After listening to an account of the angelic life of St. Anthony the Great (January 17), Hilarion made his way to the Ascetic Saint to study all those holy disciplines that please the Lord. 

Monk Hilarion soon returned to his homeland. His parents were already dead. After distributing his family wealth to the poor, the Monk began his askesis in the desert surrounding the city of Maium. 

Hilarion struggled intensely with impure thoughts, harassment of the mind and burning  passions of the flesh. He defeated them with heavy labor, fasting and fervent prayers. The devil tried to terrorize the Monk with ghostly demons and horrific phantasms. During times of prayer, Saint Hilarion heard children crying, women crying and the growling of lions and other wild beasts. The Monk understood that demons caused these terrors in order to push him away from the life of desert monasticism, and thus triumphed over his fear with the help of unending prayer.

Once, thieves fell on the Monk Hilarion, and with the power of kind and persuasive words, he convinced them to abandon their evil life and give themselves over to the Lord.

Soon all Palestine learned about the holy ascetic. The Lord has granted the Monk Hilarion the power to banish impure spirits with his prayers. With this gift of grace, the Monk melted away the burdens of many of the afflicted. Sick people came for healing and the faithful Monk healed them for free, saying that God's grace is never for sale. Through his sense of smell, the saint learned which passions beset the men who came to him with spiritual plagues, and was able to diagnose them with astonish accuracy. Many came to the Monk Hilarion, eager to save their soul under his spiritual fatherhood. 

With the blessing of the Monk Hilarion, monasteries began to spread throughout all of Palestine. Moving from monastery to monastery, he established them in a strict ascetic lifestyle. About seven years before his death (+371-372AD) the Monk Hilarion moved to Cyprus, where he became a hermit in a lonely wilderness, waiting until the Lord called him to Himself.