Saint Hilarion the Great
Celebration date: 21/10/2021
Saint Hilarion the Great was born in 333 AD, during the reign of Constantine the Great. The town in which he was brought up was called Tabatha, five miles from Gaza. His parents were rich pagans. In their desire to educate their son as best as possible, they sent him to Alexandria.
There, Hilarion got to know the Christian faith, loved it and was baptized a Christian. He became an imitator of Antony the Great and stayed with him for some time. When his parents died, he returned to his homeland, distributed all his inheritance to the poor and went into the desert. There he once met robbers, with whom he had the following instructive dialogue:
“If you were met by thieves, he was asked, what would you do?” He replied: “What has the naked man to fear?” Then they said to him: “But what if they killed you?” Hilarion replied: “So much the better. physical death closes the night of the present life and ushers in the dawn of the life to come.” Hilarion’s answers resulted in the robbers’ repentance. Hilarion also received from God the gift of performing miracles.
After touring many places and countries, he surrendered his soul to God at the age of eighty. Saint Hilarion the Great lived the last five years of his life in the Diocese of Paphos.
The relic of Osios did not stay long in Cyprus. The Christians of Palestine, when they learned of the saint’s death, sent his disciple Hesychius here, who excavated the tomb in a way. Without anyone noticing him, he took the holy relics and carried them to Palestine. There the Christians deposited them with special honors in the Monastery of Mayouma.
