Saint Thalelæus (or Thalilaeus Epiklautos,[a] Greek: Θαλλελαίου; died c. 460) was a 5th-century Syrian hermit known for continuous weeping.
Thalelæus erected for his habitation a small hut against an idol shrine, near Gabala, to which many people resorted, and where they offered sacrifice to devils.
The evil spirits, enraged at his thus assaulting them in their sanctuary, endeavoured by hideous clamours and frightful apparitions, to scare the Christian hermit away; but every effort of demons and idolaters to drive him from this shrine proved ineffectual.
Thalelæus succeeded in converting many who came as votaries to the temple, and persuaded them to bend their necks to the sweet yoke of Christ's law.
The penitent answered: "I punish my criminal body, that God seeing my affliction for my sins, may be moved to pardon them, and to deliver me from, or at least to mitigate, the excessive torments of the world to come, which I have deserved."
John Mosch in the Spiritual Meadow, c. 59. p. 872, relates that Thalilæus, the Cilician, spent sixty years in an ascetic life, weeping almost without intermission; and that he used to say to those who came to him: "Time is allowed us by the divine mercy for repentance and satisfaction, and woe to us if we neglect it.
"[5] William Hone in his Every Day Book, Or, A Guide to the Year wrote, under February 27, St. Thalilæus.This saint was a weeper in Syria.
[6] The monks of St Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate wrote in their Book of Saints (1921), Thalilæus (St.) (Feb. 27)(5th cent.)
A hermit in Cilicia (Asia Minor), who passed sixty years in the practice of the most severe penance.