FOOTNOTE:
[26] New Guide to the Holy Land, p. 534. The Church recognises many Gaza saints, e.g. Dorotheus, Dositheus, Barsanuphius, and John the Prophet.
CHAPTER IX
ST. HILARION, THE FIRST HERMIT OF PALESTINE (c. a.d. 290-371).
"The solitary life never found so many votaries in Europe as in Egypt and Palestine. Partly because of the comparative inclemency of the climate, and the proportionate need of more appliances to support life, and partly because of the more practical character of the West. As might be expected, for obvious reasons there have been fewer female hermits" (Dictionary of Christian Antiquities: Article Hermits, 1875).
During the third century, Eremites (from ἐρῆμος, desert), or Hermits, retired entirely from the haunts of men, and buried themselves in the wildest and most inaccessible solitudes.
In Palestine, the hermit life was introduced by St. Hilarion, a disciple of St. Antony.
The first Palestinian convent was founded by St. Hilarion, a.d. 328. He was pre-eminently a teacher. Every novice was given a special occupation.
Hilarion was born at Thabatha, a village five miles to the south of Gaza, c. a.d. 290, of heathen parents, who sent him to Alexandria for education. There he showed proficiency in rhetoric. He became a Christian, and turning from the attractions of the circus and theatre, spent all his leisure in attending Church services.