[3] His pagan parents sent him in his youth to study with a grammarian in Alexandria, where he gave, according to Jerome, a remarkable proof of his ability and character and became an accomplished speaker.

[6] Jerome reports several episodes in which Hilarion heals people, drives out demons, foresees the future, performs miracles and speaks divinely inspired words of wisdom.

[14] With many more people seeking his guidance, he established a monastery during the reign of emperor Constantius (337–361) which, by the time he was sixty-three, consisted of a large community with many visitors.

[15] Ten months after Hilarion's death, his disciple Hesyach stole his body, which was perfectly preserved and smelled sweetly, and interred it in his own monastery at Maiuma.

[13][15] Sozomen reports that after Hilarion's body was interred at his monastery, the local population started to celebrate an annual festival at the place.

Bede included him in his martyrology and he appeared frequently in Pre-Conquest English monastic calendars before his feast was ousted by those of Ursula and Dunstan's ordination.

[20] In iconography, is depicted as an old man with a brown, rush-like beard divided into three points and he holds sometimes a scroll which reads: "The tools of a monk are steadfastness, humility, and love according to God.

[22] Jerome was inspired by reading the Life of Anthony which also served as a literary model with regard to its content and ecclesiastic function of the text.

[15] Jerome's goal was not so much to write a historical exact account but rather a hagiographic composition focusing on the life and deeds of Hilarion.

[29] Hermann Hesse adapted a biography of Hilarion as one of the three Lives of Joseph Knecht, making his Nobel Prize–winning novel The Glass Bead Game (also known as Magister Ludi).