first was utterly in rags. He knew the Scriptures by heart, and
recited them after his prayers and psalms as if God were present.
And, because it would take up too much time to tell his great deeds
one by one, I will give a short account of them.

[Then follows a series of miracles, similar to those attributed to
St. Antony, and, indeed, to all these great Hermit Fathers. But it
is unnecessary to relate more wonders which the reader cannot be
expected to believe. These miracles, however, according to St.
Jerome, were the foundations of Hilarion's fame and public career.
For he says, "When they were noised abroad, people flowed to him
eagerly from Syria to Egypt, so that many believed in Christ, and
professed themselves to be monks--for no one had known of a monk in
Syria before the holy Hilarion. He was the first founder and
teacher of this conversation and study in the province. The Lord
Jesus had in Egypt the old man Antony; he had in Palestine the young
Hilarion . . . He was raised, indeed, by the Lord to such a glory,
that the blessed Antony, hearing of his conversation, wrote to him,
and willingly received his letters; and if rich people came to him
from the parts of Syria, he said to them, 'Why have you chosen to
trouble yourselves by coming so far, when you have at home my son
Hilarion?' So by his example innumerable monasteries arose
throughout all Palestine, and all monks came eagerly to him . . .
But what a care he had, not to pass by any brother, however humble
or however poor, may be shown by this; that once going into the
Desert of Kadesh, to visit one of his disciples, he came, with an
infinite crowd of monks, to Elusa, on the very day, as it chanced,
on which a yearly solemnity had gathered all the people of the town
to the Temple of Venus; for they honour her on account of the
morning star, to the worship of which the nation of the Saracens is