Hilarion the Great

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The memory of Hilarion the Great is celebrated on October 21.

Saint Hialrion the Great was born in 292 AD at Tabatha, a town near Gaza in Palestine. His family were pagans. He converted to Christianity and was baptised after studying in Alexandria.

While he was in Egypt he became a disciple of Saint Anthony the Great an event which inspired him to devote himself entirely to the ascetic life.

When his parents died, he returned to Gaza and sold all of his inheritence, distributing all of his wealth to the poor. After this he departed for the [desert]] of Palestine, devoting himself entirely to prayer and fasting. His asceticism was based on Saint Anthony the Great's model. He fasted daily, eating only modest foods, lived in a hut made of reeds and practised unceasing prayer. God rewarded his spiritual efforts and bestowed upon him the grace to perform miracles. His fame spread throughout Palestine and it was not long before he fled these distractions and settled eventually in Cyprus.

Saint Hilarion the Great departed from this world in 372 AD at age of 80.