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 forty 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 pathetic-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-the sum total of 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 ****trayed 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?
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Prayer to Invite
the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be Present at our Death
Most Holy Virgin Mary, by the love and fidelity with which thy Divine
Son, when fastened to the Cross, confided thee to Saint John, I confide to
thee my soul, my body, my thoughts, words, actions and life, especially
the
end thereof--that moment which will decide my fate for eternity.
As thou didst invite thy Son to thy most holy death, so I also invite
thee to mine, entreating thee to be present there-at, in the name of the
love with which thou didst assist at the death of thy Jesus. By the tears
thou didst shed at seeing Him incline His head and expire in such
torments,
vouchsafe in thy maternal bounty, to watch beside me and the members of my
family, and leave us not until thou hast introduced us into paradise.
Amen.
Taken from: The Precious Blood & Mother PrayerBook
(pp 81-82)
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