(Once again, I haven’t a clue as to why this name popped up in my head.)
From Wikipedia:
Hilarion (291–371) was an anchorite who spent most of his life in the desert according to the example of Anthony the Great.
The chief source of information regarding Hilarion is the biography written by St. Jerome. The life of Hilarion was written by Jerome in 390 at Bethlehem. Its object was to further the ascetic life to which he was devoted. It contains, amidst much that is legendary, some statements which attach it to genuine history, and is in any case a record of the state of the human mind in the 4th century.
A (long) life of denial, withdrawal from the world, fasting, visions of temptation (no doubt facilitated by his extreme fasts), wandering, and miracles.
And there are pictures — by French artists, painted in the mid-19th century.
Hilarion’s name is derived from the Greek ‘ιλαρος (hilaros) ‘cheerful’ (which, through Latin, gave English the adjective hilarious), but his life was singularly lacking in cheer.
