Early Christian Lives by Athanasius

Author:Athanasius
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-11-03T16:00:00+00:00

18 I beg you, whoever you are who reads this, to remember the sinner Jerome: should the Lord grant him his wish, he would far rather choose Paul’s tunic, together with his rewards, than the purple robes of kings, together with their punishments.

Life of Hilarion by Jerome

INTRODUCTION

Jerome was not put off by the hostile reception he felt had greeted the publication of his Life of Paul. In 391, when he was settled at Bethlehem after the difficult years at Rome spent as Pope Damasus’ secretary and the spiritual adviser of a group of aristocratic women, Jerome returned to the biographical genre. His Life of Hilarion was to be the longest biography he wrote. Jerome was apparently motivated by a desire to record Hilarion’s outstanding deeds, to supplement the encomium of the Palestinian monk already written by Epiphanius1 of Salamis in Cyprus who had known Hilarion personally. Now that Jerome was living at Bethlehem in Palestine he had no doubt heard much about Hilarion whose body had been brought back to his monastery near Gaza after his death in Cyprus2 in 371. It has also been suggested that the Life of Hilarion reflects Jerome’s own experiences,3 and it may be that Jerome found Hilarion an attractive figure because of the similarities he saw in the ideals they held and the problems they faced.

The Life of Hilarion gives an account of Hilarion’s life from his birth near Gaza in Palestine to his death in Cyprus, following him in his travels around the Mediterranean area. Hilarion models himself on Antony – and dresses in a tunic given to him by Antony4 – but settles near his native village. Like Antony he is attacked by demons during his twenty-two years of solitude; like Antony he becomes famous against his will and is forced to perform miracles, particularly miracles of healing when the sick seek him out. These miracles are described in chapters 13-23. Chapters 24-30 tell of the growth in the number of monasteries springing up around him, to the point where Hilarion finds he must get away from it all and go in search of solitude once more. He sets off for Egypt, where, on the anniversary of Antony’s death, he visits the Inner Mountain (30-31). But even in the vast deserts of Egypt he cannot find solitude, for his reputation continues to attract determined visitors. From Egypt he travels by camel to Libya (34) and then by ship to Sicily (35-6) in search of peace and quiet. Unfortunately for him, he cannot stop performing miracles and so a crowd soon gathers there, too. Crossing to the coast of Dalmatia, Hilarion remains hidden for a few days on a country estate, but when he finds that a serpent is eating up the human and animal population of the area he has to intervene and cremate the monster on a pyre (39). This is immediately followed by a miracle involving a tidal wave (40) and the reputation Hilarion gains as a result forces him to move on to Cyprus where he spends his last years.

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