Early Christian Biographies

Introduction

INTRODUCTION i\1HILE THE PROTAGONISTS of two of the Lives, Paul of Thebes and the Syrian Malchus, were essentially solitaries (dwellers apart from the world activity), the central figure in the Life of Hilarion was a man eager for solitude which an adoring populace would never grant him, a man of the world yet apart from it, in reality a monastic, by necessity if not by choice. As a result, the Vita Sancti Hilarionis was . . . a handbook of asceticism, relating in some detail not only the ascetic practices of the Einsiedler, the solitaries, but also the routine life of groups of ascetics, which constituted then, as later, what is now termed the 'monastic life.'l The great number of manuscripts found by the careful contributors to the Studies in the Text Tradition of St. Jerome's Vitae Patrum would seem to indicate that the Life of Hilarion was read in almost every monastery. The Life of Hilarion appears to have been written about 391/ shortly after the Life of Malchus, which it directly follows in St. Jerome's catalogue of his own contributions to ecclesiastical literature recorded in the De viris iUustribus.3 Already acquainted with St. Epiphanius' short biography,· 1 Strout. op. cit. 306-307. 2 Cavallera. op. cit. II 157. 3 Migne. PL 23.717. 4 He was the Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus whom Jerome had accompanied to the Synod in Rome in 382. Cf. Jerome. Ep. 127.7. 241 212 ST. JEROME St. Jerome, in his travels, became familiar with the oral account of the life of St. Hilarion and many of his famous miracles . He must have been fascinated by this patriarch and founder of monasticism in Palestine, charmed by this holy man whose early struggles and experiences in the desert were so akin to his own, whose noble scorn for the applause of the world he longed to emulate, whose constant yearning for solitude found an enviable response in his heart that craved for solitude but could not give up friends, whose miracles and wondrous works were so similar to those of his ideal, Jesus Christ. In his preface, Jerome speaks bitterly of the censure of his Lite of Paul and anticipates a similar fate for the Lite of Hilarion. There seems to have been no questioning this time, however, of his historical trustworthiness and the historicity of the person of Hilarion.5 What strikes the reader most in contrast to the two other Lives is Jerome's more frequent use of Scripture and Scriptural language. Both phenomena are quite understandable in view of his intense preoccupation with Scriptural studies during the Bethlehem period of his life. The narrative tone echoes the Acts of the Apostles, especially the series of Hilarion 's travels, whereas the account of Hilarion's miracles is strongly reminiscent of the Gospel. Many of the miracles related contain one or two features of the works of our Lord. Sometimes, the details of one episode are borrowed from two or even three different occasions6 in the life of Christ. Interesting parallels, too, may be drawn between Jerome's own life history, as gleaned from his letters,7 and that of Hilarion: 5 Bardenhewer. op. cit. III 639; Griitzmacher, op. cit. II 87·88,90. 6 Cf. Life of Hi/arion 15. 7 Cf. Ep. 17.2,3; 22.7; 5.1; 7.1; 14.10; 6. LIFE OF ST. HILARION 243 for example, his youthful enthusiasm, the similarity in intel. lectual endowments, education, attraction for friends; then, the details of his life in the desert, his struggles and tempta. tions; his program of the day, diet, care or lack of care for the body, his health, delicacy of body and infirmities from prolonged fasting; the loving admiration and attachments of friends and followers; finally, the devoted affection and at· tention of the holy noble women. In this work, the style differs from that of the other two Lives. In the Life of Paul, he worked hard to please; in the Life of M alchus, he exercised and sharpened his pen. In the Life of Hilarion, however, the presentation, once under way, seems much less self.conscious8 and less studied, partly, per. haps, because his style was less deliberate than that of the others; and partly because he was dealing with so much that that he had personally experienced or meditated upon. A special edition of the Life of Hilarion...