6. One night he began to hear the weeping of children, the bleating of herds, the mooing of bulls, as it were the cries of women, the roaring of lions, the noise of the army, and again various wonderful voices, (heard) for him to depart, frightened first by the sound than by the vision. He understood that this was a demonic mockery, and, falling on his knees, imprinting the sign of Christ on his forehead, and arming himself with it, he fought even harder, prostrating himself and wishing somehow to see those at whose hearing he was terrified. Looking here and there with attentive eyes, he suddenly saw in the light of the moon that a chariot with rushing horses was rushing towards him, and when he called out to Jesus, all the charm was swallowed up by the earth that suddenly opened before his eyes. Then he said, "Cast the horse and the rider into the sea" (Exod. XV, 1) and: "These in chariots and these on horses, but in the name of God we shall be magnified" (Psalm 1:1). XIX, 8).

7. His temptations were many, and his demonic intrigues were varied day and night: if I wanted to enumerate everything, I would go beyond the limits of the book. How many times had he seen naked women on his bed, how many times had he seen splendid viands in times of famine! From time to time, during prayer, a wolf with a howl, or a fox with a cry, jumped over him, and while he sang, a crowd of gladiators appeared to him in a vision, and one, as if killed, fell at his feet and asked for burial.

8. One day he was praying with his head in the ground, and, according to the nature of human nature, his thoughts, distracted from prayer, thought of something else; Then a horseman jumped on his back and, striking him in the sides with his heels, and on the head with a whip, said:

"Hey, why are you dozing?", and mocking from above, if he was tired, he asked if he wanted barley.

9. So, from the sixteenth to the twentieth year of his life, he protected himself from the heat and rain with a small tabernacle woven of reeds and figs. Then he built a small cell, which exists to this day, five feet high, that is, below his height, a little longer than the height of his body, so that one might think that it was more a grave than a house. 10. He cut his hair once a year, on the day of Easter, and slept until his death on the bare ground and a reed pillow. He never washed the tunic he wore and said that it was unnecessary to seek cleanliness in sackcloth. And he did not put on another tunic until the old one was completely torn. Knowing the Holy Scriptures by heart, he read them, as if in the presence of God, after prayers and psalms. And as it would be long to relate separately his ascents of different times, I shall briefly collect them before the eyes of the reader, at the same time giving an account of his life, and then return to the order of the narrative. 11. From the twenty-first to the twenty-seventh year, for three years, he ate half a sextarium [13] of lentils moistened with cold water, and during the other three years, dry bread with salt and water. Then, from the twenty-seventh to the thirtieth, he supported himself with field herbs and raw roots of certain cereals. And from the thirty-first to the thirty-fifth he had six ounces of barley bread and lightly boiled vegetables without butter. Feeling that his eyes were darkened, and his whole body was shrinking from scabies and some scab that looked like pumice, he added oil to his former food, and continued this degree of abstinence until the sixty-third year of his life, not partaking of any fruit or vegetables or anything else. Then, when he saw that he was exhausted in body and believing that he was about to die, from the sixty-fourth year to the eightieth he abstained from bread, because of the incredible fervor of his soul, so that at this time; when others usually live less strictly, he, as if a novice, began the work of the Lord. For him a soup was prepared from flour and crumbled vegetables, weighing barely five ounces of food and drink; and he, leading such a life, never permitted fasting [9] until sunset, even on feast days or in serious illness. But it is time to return to order (of the narrative). 12. While he was still living in the tabernacle, in the nineteenth year of his life, robbers came to him by night, who either thought that he had something they could take, or considered it an insult to themselves that the lonely lad was not afraid of their attacks. And so, from evening until sunrise, wandering between the sea and the swamp, they could not find anywhere the place where he rested. Then, in the daylight, having found the lad, they asked him, as if in jest: "What would you do if robbers came to you?"

He answered them: "The naked man is not afraid of robbers." "But for that," they said, "you may be killed." "They can," he answered, "they can, and I am not afraid of robbers, because I am ready to die." "Then, marveling at his firmness and faith, they confessed that they had wandered by night and that their eyes had been blinded, promising to lead a more correct life in the future. 13. He had already spent twenty-two years in solitude, known to all only by the rumor that had spread throughout all the cities of Palestine; at this time, a certain woman from Eleutheropolis [14], seeing that her husband despised her because of her barrenness — for fifteen years she had not borne the nuptial fruit — was the first [10] to dare to disturb the solitude of Blessed Hilarion; when he did not suspect anything of the kind, she suddenly fell at his feet and said: "Forgive my insolence, forgive my necessity. Why do you turn away your eyes? Why do you flee from the beggar? Look not at the woman, but at the unfortunate one. Our sex gave birth to the Savior. "The gate does not require health, but the sick" (Luke 2:11). V, 31). At last he stopped, and then, only looking at the woman, asked the reason for her coming and weeping. And when he found out, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and commanded him to have faith, then, seeing it off with tears, after a year he saw him with his son. 14. This beginning of his miracles made known another, greater miracle. Aristeneta, the wife of Elpidius, who afterwards was prefect of the praetorium,15 who was very well known among her own and more famous among the Christians, returning with her husband and three children by Blessed Anthony, stopped in Gaza because of the illness of her children. There, either because of the spoiled air, or, as it became known later, for the sake of the glorification of the servant of God Hilarion, all three of them fell ill with fever [16] and the doctors refused them. The mother, weeping, lay and (then) passing as if from one corpse to another, did not call whom to mourn first. Learning that there was a certain [11] monk in the neighbouring desert, she, forgetting the pomp of the matrons, for she was conscious of herself only as a mother, went (to him), accompanied by slave girls and eunuchs; with difficulty her husband persuaded her to ride on a donkey. When she came to him, she said: "I beseech you by Jesus, our most merciful God, I adjure you by the cross and His blood, return to me my three sons, and may the name of the Lord the Savior be glorified in the pagan city, and His servant shall enter Gaza, and the idol of the Marne shall be broken" [17].

When he refused and said that he had never left his cell, that he was not in the habit of entering not only a city, but even a small village, she threw herself on the ground, often exclaiming: "Hilarion, servant of God, give me back my children. Those whom Anthony preserved in Egypt, let them be saved by you in Syria."

All those present wept, and so did the one who refused. And what is there to say a lot?

The woman did not leave until he had promised to come to Gaza after sunset.

When he arrived there, he marked the bed of each one and the flaming limbs, and called Jesus. And — oh, a wondrous miracle! – at the same time, profuse sweat appeared as if from three sources; and at the same hour they partook of food and, calling upon their weeping mother and blessing God, they kissed the hands of the saint. When this was heard and spread far and wide, people began to flock to him from Syria and Egypt for a break, so that many believed in Christ and pronounced monastic vows. At that time there were no monasteries in Palestine, and before Saint Hilarion in Syria no one knew a monk. He was the founder and leader of this way of life and exploits in this field. The Lord Jesus had the elder Anthony in Egypt, and had the youngest Hilarion in Palestine. 15. Faqidia is a suburb of Rhinokorura [18], a city in Egypt. From this suburb they brought to Blessed Hilarion a woman who had already been blind for ten years; And when the brethren — for there were already many monks with him — brought her to him, she said that she had spent all her fortune on doctors. He answered her: "If you had given away to the poor what you had lost at the doctors, then the true physician Jesus would have healed you." When she began to cry out and beg for mercy, he spat on her eyes, and immediately the Savior's example was followed by the same miracle. 16. Likewise, a charioteer [19] in Gaza, struck down in a chariot by a demon, was completely numb, so that he could neither move his hand nor turn his neck. And so, being brought on his bed, and knowing only his tongue for prayer, he heard that he could not be healed until he believed in Jesus and promised that he would give up his former occupation.

He believed, promised, [13] was healed, and rejoiced more for the salvation of the soul than of the body. 17. Further, a very strong young man, named Marsitus, from the province of Jerusalem, boasted so much of his strength that he carried fifteen modi [20] of wheat for a long time and for a long distance, and considered it a reward for his strength if he overcame donkeys. He, being seized by the worst demon, broke chains, fetters, door locks; He bit off many noses and ears, broke the legs of some, and the shins of others. And he filled everyone with such terror against himself that, burdened with chains and (bound) with ropes that were pulled in different directions, he was dragged to the monastery like a raging bull. When the brethren saw him, and were frightened, for he was of marvellous stature, they told their father. The latter, as he was sitting, ordered him to be drawn to him and released. And when they untied him, he said: "Bow your head and come." He shook, bent his neck and, not daring to look straight ahead, putting aside all ferocity, began to lick the legs of the sitting man. The demon that took possession of the young man was cursed and tormented, and on the seventh day he went out. 18. Nor should it be passed over in silence that Orion, one of the first and richest men in Ail[21] adjacent to the Red Sea, seized by a legion of demons, was brought before him.

His arms, neck, sides, [14] legs were laden with iron, and his fierce eyes threatened with fury of rage. While the saint was walking with the brethren and explaining something of the Scriptures, he broke free from the hands of those who held him and, embracing the saint from behind, lifted him up.

Everyone shouted for fear that he would crush the members that were exhausted from fasting. But the saint, smiling, said: "Be silent and let me go of my wrestler." And then, throwing his hand over his shoulder, he touched his head and, seizing him by the hair, drew him to (his) feet; then, squeezing his hands and trampling on his soles with both feet, and repeating together, he said: "Suffer, suffer, crowd of demons." And when he cried out, he said, "Lord Jesus, set the wretched man free, set the captive free. It behooves you to conquer both one and many." I say an unheard-of thing: from the lips of one man were heard various voices and as it were a mixed cry of the people. This one also received healing, and not long after, together with his wife and children, he came to the monastery, bringing very many gifts, as if in the form of gratitude. The saint said to him: "Have you not read what Gehazi endured (II Kings, 5), what Simon endured (Acts 2:10). 8), of which one received silver, another brought, one to sell the grace of the Holy Spirit, the other to buy?" And when Orion said with tears: "Take and distribute to the poor," (the Saint) answered: "You are better able to distribute what is yours, since you go about the cities and [15] know the poor. I, who have forsaken what is mine, why should I covet what is not mine? For many, the name of the poor is a reason for greed; and mercy has no art. No one spends better than he who keeps nothing for himself." When he was grieved and lay on the ground, he said: "Do not grieve, child; What I do for myself, I do for you. For if I accept this, I will offend God, and a legion (of demons) will return to you." 19. Who could pass in silence that a certain resident of Gaza Mayoma, not far from his monastery, while cutting stones from the seashore for a building, was completely paralyzed, and, being brought by his fellow workers to the saint, immediately returned to work in good health. The shore that stretches along Palestine and Egypt is soft by nature, becoming hard, due to the fact that the sands grow stronger into stones, and the gravel, consolidating little by little, loses its touch without losing its appearance. 20. A certain Italic [22], a citizen of the same municipality[23], a Christian, fed horses for a circus against a certain duumvir of Gaza [24], devoted to the idol of the Marne. In the Roman cities, even from the time of Romulus, it was the custom that, for the sake of the successful abduction of the Sabine women, in honor of Consus,25 as if [16] the deity of the council, they should run seven times around the chariot; whoever tears the horses of the opposite side wins. And so, this (Italik), in view of the fact that his rival had a certain sorcerer, who by some demonic incantations both slowed down the horses (of the enemy) and stirred up the horses of the owner to run, came to Blessed Hilarion and besought that his opponent not so much suffer as he himself would be protected. It seemed absurd to the venerable elder to waste prayers on such trifles. He smiled and said: "Why don't you rather distribute the price of your horses to the poor for the salvation of your soul?" He replied that it was a social duty,[26] that he did not so much desire it as he was forced to do it, and that a Christian could not use magic charms; but he prefers to ask for help from the servant of God, especially against the inhabitants of Gaza, who oppose God and insult not so much him as the Church of Christ. And so, at the request of the brethren present, he gave orders to fill with water the earthen vessel from which he usually drank, and to give it to him.

Italicus, having received it, sprinkled the stalls, his horses and drivers, the chariot and the locks of the punishment cells [27]. The expectation of the crowd was surprising, because the enemy, laughing at this, [17] recounted, and those who stood for Italic rejoiced, promising themselves a certain victory.