January 15th - St. Paul the Hermit

 

St. Paul, the First Hermit
"The Father of the Eremitical Life"

    St. Paul the Hermit was born c. 227 AD in Egypt.  While he was still a young man, he retired to a desert cave during a persecution.  Palm trees provided him with both food and clothing.  He lived a life of great holiness until the age of 113.

    St. Jerome composed a biography of St. Paul titled, "The Life of Saint Paul the First Hermit."  According to St. Jerome, Paul fled to the Theban desert as a young man during a persecution, around AD 250.  He lived in the mountains of this desert in a cave near a spring and a palm tree, the leaves of which provided him with clothing and the fruit of which provided him with his only source of food until he was 43 years old, when a raven started bringing him half a loaf of bread daily.  He would remain in that cave for the rest of his life, almost a hundred more years.

    In 342, Anthony the Great was told in a dream about the older hermit's existence, and went to find him.  Jerome related that Anthony the Great and Paul met when the latter was aged 113.  They conversed with each for one day and one night.

    Paul foretold his own approaching death and begged Anthony to bury him in the cloak which Athanasius had given him.  Anthony left to fetch the cloak.

    When Anthony returned, he saw Paul's soul mounting to heaven and found his dead body in the cave in an attitude of prayer.

    Legend related that two lions came from the desert and dug a hole for the grace.  Anthony clothed Paul in the tunic which was a gift from Athanasius of Alexandria and buried Paul, with the two lions helping to dig the grave.

    Anthony kept for himself Paul's tunic of palm leaves, and for the rest of his life he wore it only twice a year: at the feast of Easter and at the feast of Pentecost.