01 — Foundations
The ground from which St. Hilarion the Great (c. 291 – c. 371) rose: his birth of pagan parents near Gaza at the village of Thabatha, his education at Alexandria, his conversion to Christ, and the formative journey that decided his whole life — the pilgrimage of a boy of fifteen to St. Antony the Great in the Egyptian desert. These files establish what Jerome’s Life of Hilarion tells of his origins and his discipleship under Antony, and how securely it can be held.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Desert Father; father of Palestinian monasticism)
Hilarion belongs to the second generation of the monastic movement — the generation that received the eremitic life from its Egyptian founder and carried it outward. Jerome opens his Life by placing Hilarion’s beginnings between two worlds: the pagan village near Gaza where he was born and the Christian schools of Alexandria where he was converted, with the desert of Antony lying beyond as the magnet that drew him. This section sets that geography, examines the conversion and the decisive visit to Antony, and locates Hilarion within the spread of the monastic ideal from Egypt to the wider Christian East.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Gaza and Alexandria | Hilarion’s birth c. 291 at Thabatha near Gaza of pagan parents (Jerome, Life of Hilarion 2); the boy sent to study grammar and rhetoric at Alexandria; his baptism and conversion to Christ in that great Christian city; the world of fourth-century Egypt and Palestine into which he was born. |
| The Visit to Antony | The journey of the boy of about fifteen into the Egyptian desert to St. Antony the Great (Jerome, Life of Hilarion 3); his two months in Antony’s company; why he left to seek a stricter and more hidden solitude; the formation that made him Antony’s heir in Palestine. |
See Also
- The Desert of Gaza — what Hilarion did with the formation he received from Antony
- Jerome’s Life of Hilarion — the single source for these foundational events
- St. Antony the Great — the father of monasticism whose disciple Hilarion became
- Monasticism — the ascetic tradition Hilarion received and transplanted
References
- Jerome. Life of Hilarion (Vita Hilarionis). Trans. in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd ser., vol. 6. Buffalo: Christian Literature Company, 1893; and trans. Carolinne White, Early Christian Lives. London: Penguin, 1998.
- Sozomen. The Ecclesiastical History. Trans. in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd ser., vol. 2. 1890.
- Chitty, Derwas J. The Desert a City. Oxford: Blackwell, 1966.
- Weingarten, Susan. The Saint’s Saints: Hagiography and Geography in Jerome. Leiden: Brill, 2005.