06 — The Wandering Years
The strange second half of Hilarion’s life: having founded Palestinian monasticism, he could not bear the fame it brought, and so the old man fled — first to Egypt and the desert of his master Antony, then westward across the Mediterranean, through Sicily, Dalmatia, and at last to Cyprus, ever seeking the solitude that his own holiness denied him. These files establish the repeated flights from the crowds and the long wanderings that ended in his death on Cyprus around 371, with his faithful disciple Hesychius at the last.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Desert Father; father of Palestinian monasticism)
The wandering years are what most distinguish Hilarion’s story from his master’s. Antony, in Athanasius, withdraws ever deeper but stays in Egypt; Hilarion, in Jerome, becomes a fugitive across the whole sea, driven from land to land by the fame he cannot escape. The pattern is always the same — he settles, he is discovered, the crowds gather, he flees again — and it is the engine of the Life‘s second half. This section treats the motive and the rhythm of the flights, then follows the itinerary through Egypt, Sicily, Dalmatia, and Cyprus to the saint’s death and the disciple who attended it; the relics and their translation are reserved for Section 07.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Flight from Fame | The motive and rhythm of the flights: the horror of vainglory in the desert tradition; the resolve to leave Palestine when the crowds became insupportable; the return to Egypt and the desert of Antony; the pattern by which discovery and the gathering of crowds drove him on again; how Jerome reads the flights as the deepest expression of the eremitic vocation. |
| Egypt, Sicily, Dalmatia, Cyprus | The itinerary of the wanderings (Jerome, Life of Hilarion): Egypt and the place of Antony’s death; Sicily; the tidal wave at Epidaurus in Dalmatia; the final settlement on Cyprus and the death there c. 371; the disciple Hesychius who served and survived him; Sozomen’s independent confirmation of the Cyprus ending. |
See Also
- The Visitation of Crowds — the fame that set the flights in motion
- The Relics Translated to Palestine — what Hesychius did after the death on Cyprus
- The Historical Hilarion — Sozomen’s confirmation of the Cyprus ending
- Monasticism — the eremitic flight from the world and from praise
References
- Jerome. Life of Hilarion (Vita Hilarionis). Trans. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd ser., vol. 6. 1893; and trans. Carolinne White, Early Christian Lives. London: Penguin, 1998.
- Sozomen. The Ecclesiastical History III.14; V.10. Trans. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd ser., vol. 2. 1890.
- Weingarten, Susan. The Saint’s Saints: Hagiography and Geography in Jerome. Leiden: Brill, 2005.
- Chitty, Derwas J. The Desert a City. Oxford: Blackwell, 1966.