The first miracle of healing with which St. Hilarion is credited was the restoration to health of three children at Gaza, whose mother had induced him to come forth from his retreat to see them. Standing beside their bed, the hermit merely uttered the word "JESUS," and they at once recovered. On his return to his cell he was so besieged by other applicants for relief that he could no longer lead his secluded life.[27] In his sixty-third year, hearing of the decease of St. Antony, St. Hilarion resolved to visit the place where the great recluse had entered into rest, hoping thus to escape from the crowds by whom he was now constantly surrounded. Resisting all the efforts of the Egyptian hermits to become their leader, he returned alone to Gaza, but no sooner had he left them than messengers arrived with orders from Julian the Apostate to slay Hilarion, and his disciple Hesychius, wherever they should be found. During Hilarion's absence in Egypt, the heathen citizens of Gaza destroyed his monastery at Mayoumas. During his life of fifty years in Palestine, he visited the holy sites but once, and for a single day--in order, as he said, that he might neither appear to despise them on account of their meanness, nor to suppose that God's grace was limited to any particular place. During, apparently, this short visit to Jerusalem, a pleasing story is told of him in connection with his friend St. Epiphanius, Archbishop of Constantia (formerly Salamîs) and Metropolitan of Cyprus. Hilarion called upon this Bishop. Some fowls were served up at the table, and St. Epiphanius asked his guest to partake of them. Hilarion excused himself, saying that, since he put on the habit of a recluse, he had never eaten of any animal. "And I," said Epiphanius, "since I put on the same habit, have never allowed that any one should lie down to sleep with a grievance against me on his mind, even as I have never gone to rest at variance with any one." "Father," replied the hermit, "your rule is more excellent than mine." For additional information concerning the celebrated St. Epiphanius, A.D. 368-404, and his intimate connection with St. Hilarion, see Hackett's _History of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus_, pp. 399-407, _etc._ "Our Father and Archbishop Epiphanius of Cyprus" is commemorated in the Byzantine Kalendar on May 12. At last, in a wilderness near Paphos in Cyprus, death released Hilarion, this much persecuted saint, from importunities. Almost with his last breath he expressed a wish as to where his body was to be buried--without pomp or ceremony. His wishes were respected, but his friend and favourite disciple, Hesychius, stole his body from the grave, re-interring it in his own monastery at Mayoumas. A rivalry ensued between the places of the first and second interments; miracles were said to be performed at both. According to Sozomen, his festival was observed in Palestine with great solemnity as early as the fifth century.