Hilarion was born in an area found in present-day Palestine, in what is now the Gaza Strip. From an early age, he felt drawn to Christianity–but he just didn’t like being around Christians! So he went off on his own to become one of a long line of desert monks, likely living in the Sinai Peninsula.

After twenty years in the desert, Hilarion worked his virgin miracle, so to speak. Butler writes:

A certain married woman of Eleutheropolis, who was the scorn of her husband for her barrenness, sought him out in his solitude, and by her tears and importunities prevailed upon him (Hilarion) to pray that God would bless her with fruitfulness; and before the year’s end she brought forth a son.

His next two miracles were also performed at the direct and tear-filled requests of women. He was definitely not of the “don’t look at / don’t talk to / don’t interact meaningfully with the opposite sex” variety of ascetic Christian!

Now, consider Occam’s razor (a “razor” in this sense being a philosophical principle); it is the idea that “of two competing theories, the simpler explanation of an entity is to be preferred.” Another, metaphorical way of stating this razor is “if you hear hoofbeats, think horses first, not zebras.”

Ah, but should one take a razor to a miracle? It’s a tricky proposition, but Hilarion’s “first” fairly screams out for such an application! Take this out of the Calendar of Saints, and tell me how these facts strike you, the Reader:

• A woman is hated by her husband because she has yet to conceive despite having repeated intercourse with him.
• The husband blames the woman. The fault must be her barrenness rather than his sterility.
• Life is unbearable for her.
• She hears about a relatively young man who has a reputation for taking women seriously.
• Further, this man lives out in the desert–far away from her husband (and, perhaps any other prying eyes).
• She comes up with some excuse for her hate-filled (and possible sterile) husband, takes leave, and goes to that man in the desert.
• She begs, she cries, she wheedles, she entreats this man to help her get pregnant.
• He consents to help her, and behold!: this previously “barren” woman gives birth before the year is out.
• The wife is no longer the object of the husband’s hatred.
• Other women start coming out to Hilarion for miracles.

Now just what did Hilarion do to assist this woman in her time of great need? After all, if the only thing she needed was prayer, why go to Hilarion (a man with no previous miracles to his credit!) and ask that he in particular would “pray that God would bless her with fruitfulness”–and why his resistance if it was just a prayer? why the need for tears and importunities? why even bother to seek him out in the desert when there were priests much closer to home?

Razor, anyone?