And so, at a given sign, some arrive, others get confused; under the chariot of some the wheels heat up, others can barely see the backs of those flying by. A great cry arose, so that even the pagans themselves exclaimed: "Marne has been conquered by Christ."

Then, the opponents in a rage demanded the execution of Hilarion, the Christian, the sorcerer. And so, the undoubted victory in these and many previous games was for many a reason to believe (in Christ). 21. A nearby young man fell in love with a girl from the same city of Gaza, dedicated to God.

And when he had not succeeded in touching, joking, nodding, whistling, and the like (actions) that serve as the beginning of dying virginity, he went to Memphis, in order to confess his wound and return to the maiden, armed with magical charms. And so, having been taught for a year by the priests of Aesculapius, who does not heal souls, but destroys them, he returned, passionately desiring the adultery conceived in his soul, and buried under the threshold of the maiden's house some wonderful words and wonderful images carved on a tablet of Cypriot copper.

Immediately the maiden fell into madness, and, throwing off her head covering, began to twist her hair, [18] gnashing her teeth, calling on the name of the young man, since strong love turned into fury. And so, her parents brought her to the monastery and handed her over to the elder, whereupon the demon immediately screamed and confessed: "I endured violence, I was taken away against my will; how well in Memphis I deceived people with dreams! O crosses! Oh, the torments I experience! You compel me to go out, and I, bound, remain at the threshold. I will not go out unless the young man who holds me lets go." Then the elder said: "Great is your strength if you are held tied with thread and a board. Tell me, how did you dare to enter into a virgin consecrated to God?" – "In order to preserve her virginity," he answered. "Shall you preserve, traitor to chastity?

Why did you not quickly enter into the one who sent you?" — "Why should I enter into him, when my companion, the demon of love, was already in him?" that demons are deceitful and cunning in inventions. Having restored his health, he reprimanded the maiden why she had done such things, through which the demon had access to it. 22. Word of him spread not only in Palestine and in the neighboring cities of Egypt and Syria, but also in the outlying provinces. Thus [19] the candidate [29] of the emperor Constantius [30], red-haired and white in body, who indicated his region (his tribe, not so numerous as strong, between the Saxons and the Alemanni, is called by historians Germany, and now France) had long been possessed, that is, from childhood possessed by a demon, which made him howl, moan, gnash his teeth at night. He secretly asked the emperor for a travel allowance, simply stating the reason (of the request), and having also received a letter to the consul of Palestine, he was escorted to Gaza with great honor and retinue.

When he asked the local decurions [33] where the monk Hilarion dwelt, the inhabitants of Gaza were greatly frightened and, believing that he had been sent by the emperor, brought him to the monastery in order both to show honor to the person recommended and to atone with a new service those insults of Hilarion that might remain from previous offenses. At that time the elder walked on the soft sand and whispered to himself something from the Psalms; Seeing that a small crowd was approaching, he stopped and greeted them from his side, and blessing them with his hand, after a while he ordered the others to leave, and the latter to remain with his servants and servants: he knew from his face and eyes what he had come for. And immediately [20] the man, heeding the question of the servant of God, began to barely touch the ground with his feet, and with a strong roar answered in the Syriac language in which he was questioned.

From the barbarous lips of a man who knew only Frankish and Latin, it was possible to see how purely Syriac words sounded, so that there was no lack of hissing, breathing, or other peculiarities of the Palestinian dialect. And so, he (i.e., the devil) confessed how he had entered into him. And in order that the translators, who knew only Latin and Greek, might understand him, (the saint) asked him in Greek. And when he answered in the same words, and presented many cases of slander and the inevitability of the magical arts, (the saint) said: "I do not care how you enter, but I command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you go out." And when he was healed, then, in the simplicity of the village, offering ten pounds of gold, he received barley bread from him, and heard that those who eat such food consider gold to be dirt. 23. It is not enough to talk about people; mad dumb animals were also drawn to him every day, among which was a Bactrian camel of enormous size, which had already crushed many; thirty too many men, having tied him up with the strongest ropes, brought him in with a cry: his eyes were bloodshot, foam was foaming from his mouth, his fast-moving tongue was swollen, and, to complete all the horror, a terrible roar was heard. The elder ordered [21] to let him go. Immediately, both those who brought and those who were with the elder fled. Then he went to meet him alone and said in Syriac: "You, O devil, do not frighten me with such a huge body: both in the fox and in the camel you are one and the same." And meanwhile he stood with his hand outstretched. And when the beast, mad and as if intending to devour him, came to him, he immediately fell down and, lowering his head, leveled it to the ground, so that all those present were amazed at a little meekness after a little rage. The Elder taught that for the sake of people, the devil sometimes takes possession of beasts of burden; he burns with hatred for people to such an extent that he desires the destruction not only of themselves, but also of what belongs to them. As an example of this, he cited that before (the devil) was allowed to tempt the blessed Job, he destroyed all his possessions. And no one should be surprised that, at the command of the Lord, two thousand pigs were destroyed by demons (Matt. VIII, Mrk. V), since those who saw it could not otherwise believe that a great multitude of demons came out of a man, if at the same time a large number of pigs were not overthrown, and as it were persecuted by many. 24. I will not have time if I want to relate all the miracles he performed, for he was exalted by the Lord to such a degree of glory that even Blessed Anthony, hearing about his life, wrote to him [22] and received messages from him with pleasure. And if when the sick from the countries of Syria came to him, he would say to them: "Why did you wish to trouble so much from afar, when you have my son Hilarion there?" Seeing this, he praised the grace of the Lord and exhorted everyone to spiritual success, saying that the darkness of this world was passing by, and that the true life was that which was acquired by deprivation in the present life. 25. Wishing to give them an example of humility and duty, on certain days, before the harvest of grapes, he went around the cells of the monks. When this became known to the brethren, they all began to flock to him and, accompanied by such a leader, went around the monasteries, having food with them, because sometimes up to two thousand people gathered.

However, in the course of time, each village gladly offered the neighboring monks food for the reception of the saints. And how much he tried not to pass over any of the brethren, however lowly, even if poor, is indicated, for example, by the fact that, going to the desert of Kadesh [34] to visit one of his disciples, he arrived with an innumerable crowd of monks in Elousa [35] by chance on the day when the annual festival gathered the entire [23] population of the city in the temple of Venus. She is revered for the sake of Lucifer, to whose worship the entire Saracen tribe is devoted. And the city itself is for the most part semi-barbaric, on account of its location [36]. And so, hearing that Saint Hilarion was passing by – he often healed many Saracens who had been seized by a demon – they came out in a crowd, with their wives and children, to meet him, lowering their heads and exclaiming in Syriac: Barech, that is, bless. He, receiving them kindly and humbly, adjured them to worship God, and not stones, and together he shed abundant tears, looking up to heaven and promising, if they believed in Christ, to come to them often. Wondrous is the grace of the Lord: they did not let him go before he drew a line for the future church, and their priest, who was crowned [37], was marked with the sign of Christ. 26. In another year, when he was preparing to go out to visit the monasteries and was distributing in a notebook with whom he should spend the night, whom he should visit in passing, the monks, knowing that one of the brethren was too stingy, and at the same time wishing to heal him of his vice, asked (the saint) to spend the night with him. But he said: "Why do you want to be offended yourselves and cause trouble to your brother?" When that miserly brother heard this, he blushed, and thanks to the efforts of all, against the will (of the saint),

[24] reached the point where he included his monastery in a number of lodgings. After the tenth day they came to him, but in his vineyard through which they were walking, guards were posted, who, throwing stones and lumps and twirling with slings, drove away those who approached; Thus they all departed in the morning, without tasting the vine, and the elder laughed and hid what he knew about what had happened. 27. Then they were received by another monk, named Sava — the name of the miser should be kept silent and the name of the generous one should be mentioned — and since it was Sunday, he invited them all into the vineyard so that they might be refreshed by eating the vine after a difficult journey before the hour of food. But the saint said: "Cursed is he who seeks bodily rest before spiritual. Let us pray, sing, do our duty to the Lord, and then hurry to the vineyard." And so, having fulfilled the service, he, standing at the top, blessed the vineyard and sent his sheep to pasture. And there were at least three thousand people who ate. And although the vineyard, while still untouched, was valued, after twenty days it gave three hundred vessels [38]. And that miserly brother, who had gathered much less than usual, grieved too late that the rest had turned into vinegar. The elder predicted to many of the brethren that this would happen [25]. He especially turned away from monks, who, due to some distrust of the future, put aside from their own and had a desire either for money, or for clothing, or for any of the other things that pass away with the world. 28. Finally, one of the brethren who lived from him in the fifth miliarius [39] he drove out of his sight, because he learned that he was moderately cautious and cowardly in his garden and had some money. This one, wishing to reconcile the elder with himself, often came to the brethren, and especially to Hesychius,[40] whom he loved very much. And so, one day he brought a bunch of peas, as it was, with greens. When Hesychius offered him for the evening meal, the elder exclaimed that he could not bear his stench, and at the same time asked where he was from. Hesychius replied that a certain brother had brought the brethren a novelty from his garden. "Do you not hear," said (the elder), "the disgusting stench, and that the peas stink of miserliness? Give it to the bulls, give it to the dumb animals, and see if they will eat?" And when he, fulfilling the order, put him in the stall, the bulls were frightened and, mooing louder than usual, broke the leashes and fled in different directions. The Elder had that [26] grace that by the smell of his body and clothes and those objects that someone touched, he knew what demon or vice he was possessed by [41]. 29. And so, in the sixty-third year of his life, seeing a large monastery and a multitude of brethren living with it, seeing crowds of those who brought to him those possessed by various ailments and unclean spirits, so that the surrounding wilderness was filled with people of all kinds, he wept daily and with incredible longing remembered his former way of life. When the brethren asked him why he was grieving, he answered: "I returned to the world again and accepted the reward during my lifetime. Behold, the inhabitants of Palestine and the neighboring regions think that I have any significance, and under the pretext of a monastery, I have full utensils for the management of the brethren." The brethren guarded him, especially Hesychius, who with amazing love gave himself over to the veneration of the elder. And when he had lived in such sorrow for two years, Aristeneta, whom we have mentioned above,42 who was then married to the prefect, but had nothing of the prefect's pride, came to him, desiring to go to Anthony also. He answered her with tears: "I would like to go too, if I had not been imprisoned in this monastery, and if there had been any benefit from the journey. Today it has been two days since the whole world lost such a father." She believed and [27] stayed, and a few days later, when a messenger arrived, she heard about the dormition of Anthony [43]. 30. Let others marvel at the miracles he performed; let them be amazed at incredible abstinence, knowledge, humility; but I am so astonished at nothing as that he could trample on glory and honor. Bishops, presbyters, crowds of clergy and monks, matrons, and also Christian women flocked to him – a great temptation! — and from various cities and fields, the common people, as well as strong men, and judges, in order to receive the bread or oil blessed to them. And he dreamed of nothing else but solitude, until one day he decided to set out, and when an ass was brought to him, being excessively exhausted by fasting, he could hardly walk, he tried to set out. When this became known, and Palestine was declared a kind of devastation and cessation of affairs, more than ten thousand men of various sexes and ages gathered to hold it. He remained steadfast in his requests, scattered sand with his staff, and said: "I will not make my Lord a liar; I cannot see the destroyed churches, the trampled altars of Christ, the blood of my sons" [45]. All those present understood that something secret had been revealed to him, which he did not want to confess, and nevertheless they guarded him, [28] so that he would not go. And he decided, with a loud testimony of all, that he would not accept food or drink unless he was released. And at the end of seven days, having allowed the fast, and having bid farewell to very many, with an innumerable crowd of mourners, he arrived at Vitalium,46 where, having persuaded the crowd to return, he chose forty monks, who were to have travel supplies and could set out on an empty stomach, that is, after sunset. Having visited the brethren who were in the neighboring wilderness and lived in a place called Lychnos,47 after three days he set out to the fortified place of Theubvat,48 in order to see Dracontius,49 bishop and confessor, who lived there in exile. After the next three days, having greatly consoled him with the presence of a small man, he arrived in Babylon with great difficulty, to see Philo, who was also a confessor, for King Constantius, who was the protector of the Arian heresy, had imprisoned both of them in these regions. Leaving thence, three days later he arrived in the city of Aphroditon,[52] where, having made an agreement with the deacon Baisan — he, hiring dromedary camels, because of the scarcity of water in the desert, was accustomed [29] to accompany those who went to Anthony — declared to the brethren that the day of the dormition of Blessed Anthony was approaching, and that he should hold an all-night vigil in his memory at the place where he had died. And so, after three days (walking) through a vast and terrible desert, they finally came to the highest mountain and found there two monks – Isaac and Pelusian, of whom Isaac was the translator of Anthony. 31. And since the occasion presents itself, and we have come to this point, it seems worth briefly describing the dwelling of such a man. A rocky and high mountain of about a thousand paces exudes water at its foot; part of it is swallowed up by the sands, and a part, flowing down, gradually forms a spring, over which innumerable palm trees (grow) on both banks and give the area much charm and comfort. One could see how the elder went hither and thither with the disciples of Blessed Anthony. "Here," they said, "he used to sing, here he worked, here, tired, he sat. These vineyards, these trees he planted himself, this site he built with his own hands. He dug this pond for irrigating the garden with a lot of sweat. I had this hoe for digging the ground for many years." He lay on its flooring and kissed the still warm bed, as it were. The cell on the four sides was no more than where a sleeping person can stretch. In addition, at the very top of the mountain, where the ascent was in the form of a snail and very steep, two cells of the same size were visible; Anthony dwelt in them, avoiding the multitude of those who came and the cohabitation of his disciples. They were carved into the living rock, and only the doors were added to them. When they came to the garden, Isaac said: "Do you see this garden planted with shrubs and green with vegetables? About three years ago, when he was being ravaged by a herd of onagers, he ordered one of their leaders to stop, and beating him on the sides with a rod, said: "Why do you eat what you did not sow?" In addition, the elder asked to show him the grave (of Anthony).

They took him aside, whether they showed him or not, it is unknown. They cited the commandment of Anthony as the reason for the concealment, so that Pergamus [54], a very rich man in these places, would not take the body of the saint to his estate and build a martyrium [55]. 32. And so, returning to Aphroditon, and keeping only two brothers with him, he remained in the neighboring desert; his abstinence and silence were so great that he said that it was the first time he had begun to work for Christ. It had been three years since the closed sky had dried up those regions, so that it was said that even the elements were grieving over the death of Anthony. The fame of Hilarion was not hidden from the inhabitants of this place, and the persons of the male and female sexes, with yellowed faces, exhausted by hunger, intermittently asked for rain from the servant of Christ, that is, from the successor of Blessed Anthony. Seeing them, he grieved greatly, and lifting up his eyes to heaven and lifting up both hands, he immediately asked for what he desired. And so the thirsty and sandy country, being watered by the rains, suddenly spewed out such a multitude of snakes and poisonous animals that an innumerable number (of people) were bitten by them and would have perished immediately if they had not resorted to Hilarion: by smearing the wounds with blessed oil, all the farmers and shepherds received reliable health. 33. Seeing that even here he was depressed by excessive honors, he set out for Alexandria, intending to pass from there through the desert to the distant Oasis. As he had never slept in cities since the time of his monasticism, he stayed with some of the brethren he knew in Wruchia,56 not far from Alexandria. They received the elder with great joy, but when night fell, they suddenly heard that his disciples were saddling a donkey and he was preparing to leave. Then, falling at his feet, they begged him not to do this, and lying down on the threshold, they assured him that they would rather die than lose their little guest. [32] He answered them: "Therefore I am in a hurry to depart, so as not to cause you trouble. From what follows you will learn that it was not without reason that I left suddenly." The next day the prefects of Gaza, accompanied by the lictors—they had learned that he had arrived the day before—entered the monastery and, not finding him, said among themselves: "Is not what we have heard true? He is a sorcerer and knows the future."

The city of Gaza, after the removal of Hilarion from Palestine, when Julian came to the throne, destroyed his monastery and, at the request addressed to the emperor, brought about the death of Hilarion and Hesychius: all over the world it was ordered to search for both of them. 34. Leaving Vruchius, he arrived in the Oasis through an impassable desert. And when he had been there for about a year, for the fame of him had reached thither, and he thought that he could no longer hide himself in the East, where many knew him by word of mouth and by sight, he began to think of sailing to a deserted island, that the sea might at least conceal him whom the land had announced. At about the same time his disciple Hadrian came to him from Palestine, saying that Julian had been killed and that the emperor Christian had ascended the throne, and that he (i.e., the elder) should return to the remains of his monastery. Hearing this, he refused, and, hiring a camel, through [33] a deep desert, arrived at the coastal city of Libya Paretonium[59]. Here the unfortunate Adrian, wishing to return to Palestine and seeking in the name of a teacher of former glory, inflicted many insults on him. Finally, having tied up all the gifts brought to him from the brethren, he set off without his knowledge. And since there will be no occasion to tell about him elsewhere, I will say only one thing to frighten those who despise their teachers: after a while he rotted from leprosy. 35. The elder, accompanied by a certain resident of Gaza, boarded a ship sailing to Sicily. And when he, having sold the book of the Gospels, which he had written with his own hand in his youth, was preparing to pay for transportation, almost in the middle of the Adriatic Sea, the son of the shipwright was seized by a demon and began to cry out, saying: "Hilarion, servant of God, why should we not be safe even at sea through you? Give me time to reach the earth, so that, having been cast out here, I will not fall into the abyss." He said to him: "If my God allows you to stay, stay, but if He spews you out, then why do you insult me, a sinful and poor man?" And after a while the lad was purified, and the father and the rest of those present [34] promised that they would not speak of his name to anyone. 36. Having landed on the Sicilian cape Pachina [60], he offered the shipwright the gospel for the transportation of himself and the inhabitant of Gaza. He did not want to take it, especially seeing that they had nothing but a book and what they were wearing, and finally swore that he would not take it. And the elder, inflamed with confidence through the consciousness of his poverty, rejoiced in particular that he had nothing of the world, and was considered by the inhabitants of this place to be a beggar. 37. However, thinking again that the merchants coming from the East should not make him known, he fled to the interior, that is, to the twentieth miliarius [61] from the sea; There, in a certain deserted field, he tied a bundle of wood every day and put it on the back of the disciple. Having sold it in the nearest village, they bought food and some bread for those who happened to come to them. But it is true according to the Scriptures:

"A city cannot hide itself on the top of a mountain standing" (Matt. V, 14): a certain noble soldier [62] was tormented in the Basilica of Blessed Peter, in Rome, and an unclean spirit cried out in him: "A few days ago the servant of Christ Hilarion entered Sicily, and no one knows him, and he thinks that he has hidden himself; I'll go and give him up." And straightway, embarking on a ship with his

[35] slaves, he joined Pachinus, and, led by a demon, as soon as he prostrated himself before the tabernacle of the saint, he was immediately healed. This beginning of his miracles in Sicily subsequently brought to him an innumerable multitude of sick and believing persons, to the point that one of the first men, swollen with dropsy, was healed on the very day he came.

Offering him innumerable gifts, he heard the saying of the Savior to the disciples: "Thou shalt receive, thou shalt give" (Matt. X, 8). 38. While this was happening in Sicily, Hesychius, his disciple, searched for the elder all over the world, bypassing the shores, penetrating into the deserts, and had only one certainty, that wherever he was, he could not remain unknown for long. Three years had passed since he had heard in Methon from a certain Jew, who was selling cheap rags to the people, that a Christian prophet had appeared in Sicily, who performed such signs and wonders that he was considered one of the ancient saints. Inquiring about his appearance, gait, and speech, and especially his age, he could learn nothing, for the one who reported said that he had only heard a rumor about a man. And so, having entered the Adriatic Sea, he reached Pachinus by safe sailing, and in a certain village on the bend of the coast, inquiring about the rumors about the elder, from the unanimous testimony of everyone he learned where he was and what he was doing: everyone was not surprised at anything in him to such an extent as the fact that, after so many signs and wonders, he did not accept even a slice of bread from anyone in these places. I will not dwell on it – the holy man Hesychius fell to the knees of the teacher and watered his feet with tears, and at last he was raised up by him; after two or three days of conversation, he heard from a resident of Gaza that the elder could no longer live in this flattery, but wanted to go to some barbarian peoples, where his name and glory would be unknown. 39. And so he brought him to Epidaurus, a city in Dalmatia,[64] where, remaining a few days in a neighboring field, he could not take refuge. For a dragon of marvellous size, which in the local language is called boa, because they are so large as to swallow bulls,65 devastated the whole country, and devoured not only the cattle and the flocks, but also the farmers and shepherds, drawing them to him by the power of their breath. (The saint) gave orders to prepare a fire for him and, having raised a prayer to Christ, summoned him and ordered him to climb up on a pile of wood, under which a fire was placed. Then, in front of all the people, he burned a huge animal. Then, hesitating what to do, where to turn, he prepared for a new flight, and surveying in his mind the solitary places, he grieved that even if his tongue was silent about him, miracles were prophesied. 40. At that time, as a result of the widespread earthquake that occurred after the death of Julian, the seas overflowed their borders, and God seemed to threaten with a flood again, and everything returned to ancient chaos; (then) the ships raised on the steep mountains hung on them. The inhabitants of Epidaurus, seeing this, that is, how noisy waves, water masses, and agitated mountains rushed to the shore, and fearing, what they had already seen, that the city would not perish completely, went to the elder and, as if going to battle, set him on the shore. He drew three crosses in the sand and stretched out his hands forward, and the sea, which had risen to an incredible height, stopped before him, and with a long noise and as if indignant at the obstacle, gradually returned to its bosom. This is glorified to this day by Epidaurus and all that region, and mothers tell their children about it in order to pass on the memory of it to posterity. It is truly said to the Apostles: "If you have faith, say this mountain, go into the sea, and it will pass away" (Matt. XVII, 20), and can be fulfilled literally, if anyone has the faith of the Apostles, and such as the Lord commanded them to have. For what difference does it make whether the mountain descends into the sea, or the huge mountains of water suddenly harden and, petrified only before the feet of the elder, flow smoothly from the other side? [38] 41. The whole city was amazed, and the greatness of the miracle became known even in Salona [66].