Hilarion

, the founder of the monastic life in Palestine, was horn at Tabatha, near Gaza, in the'year 291, of a Pagan family, but embraced Christianity. He went afterwards to join St. Anthony in his solitude, from which he returned to his own country, aud having distributed all his property among the poor, withdrew into a desert, where he acquired a high character for piety and devotion. The number of his disciples soon hecoming very numerous, he distributed them into different establishments throughout Palestine and Syria, over which he exercised a most vigilant superintendance. He died in the year 371, at the island of Cyprus. ²