St. Bessarion the Wonder-worker & St. Hilarion the Younger

Our Venerable Father Bessarion the Wonder-worker.

Bessarion was born and educated in Egypt. He dedicated himself to the spiritual life at an early age and "did not stain his spiritual garment in which he was clothed at baptism." He visited St. Gerasimus by the Jordan and learned from St. Isidore of Pelusium. He subdued his body through extreme fasting and vigils but he concealed his life of mortification from men as much as possible. At one time, he stood for forty days at prayer, neither eating nor sleeping. He wore one garment both in summer and winter. He possessed the great gift of miracle-working. He did not have a permanent dwelling place but lived in the mountains and forests until a ripe old age. He healed the sick and worked many other miracles for the benefit of the people and to the glory of God. He died peacefully in the year 466 A.D.

Our Venerable Father and Confessor Hilarion the Younger, Hegumen of the Dalmatian Monastery.

Hilarion was the abbot of the Dalmatus monastery in Constantinople. He was a disciple of Gregory of Decapolis and an imitator of the life of Hilarion the Great whose name he took. Hilarion was powerful in prayer, persevering and courageous in suffering. He suffered much for the sake of icons at the time of the evil iconoclastic emperors, Leo the Armenian and others. Later, the Emperor Leo was slain by his own soldiers in the same church and on the same spot where he first ridiculed holy icons and from which he removed the first icon. St. Hilarion was then released from prison but only for a short time. Again, he was tortured and detained in prison until the reign of the right-believing Empress Theodora. Hilarion was clairvoyant and a discerner. He saw the angels of God as they were taking the soul of St. Theodore the Studite to heaven. Pleasing God, he fell asleep and entered the Kingdom of God in the year 845 A.D. in his seventieth year.