St. Paul of Thebes is known as the First Christian Hermit.
St. Paul of Thebes (lower Egypt), also known as St. Paul the Anchorite, is considered by many to be the very first Christian Hermit. May often attribute this honor mistakenly to St. Antony, but it was this great desert Father himself who gave the Christian world knowledge of St. Paul. Much of our saint’s life has been preserved by the great Church Doctor, Hermit and Biblical Scholar, St. Jerome in his Vitæ Patrum.
At an early age (~15 years), Paul lost both his parents. He was well learned, well-off and a Christian. During the great persecution of Decius (250 AD), he kept himself hidden in a family member's home. Yet finding out that a brother-in-law was inclined to betray him in order to gain his estate, Paul fled into the Theban desert. He was only twenty two years old. He lived in the mountains of this desert in a cave near a clear spring and a palm tree. The tree provided his only raiment and his fruit for food; the spring gave him water to drink. Initially, he intended to return to civilization once the persecution ended, but he so relished the sweets of heavenly contemplation and penance, and learning the spiritual advantages of holy solicitude, he resolved never more to return among men. He lived this simple life until he was 43, when like Elias of old, he began to be miraculously fed with bread brought to him each day by a raven.
No one really knows what he did for about ninety years of his life. But Divine Providence wished him to be known and so he brought the Great St. Antony of the Desert to meet him. St. Antony, who was ninety, was being tempted by Satan to vanity - imagining himself to be the first example of a life so recluse from human conversation and having served God in the wilderness longer than anyone else. As a grace to preserve his holiness and virtue, God sent him a dream that very night. He commanded Antony to find a more perfect servant in the most remote parts of the desert. Upon his journey, St. Antony was best by demons in monstrous form who tried to dissuade him from his path. However, by the power of the Sign of the Cross, St. Antony overcame them and forced them to reveal the hidden location of St. Paul the First Hermit. Ironically it was by the power of Christ Crucified that his malevolent adversaries provided him the necessary help to fulfill God's command.
St. Antony found St. Paul's cell by a small light burning within. He long begged admittance, and at last St. Paul opened the door to his cave with a smile. They embraced and each knew the other through divine revelation. They conversed of holy things all day, and in the evening the raven brought a loaf of bread. Each insisted the other should have it - and as they both held one end it suddenly broke in twain. They took this as the will of God and thus shared this meager meal. The next morning, St. Paul informed St. Antony that his death was fast approaching. He asked St. Antony to wrap him in a cloak given to him by St. Athanasius of Alexandria and to bury him with all Christian dignity. St. Paul wished to die in the cloak of St. Athanasius to testify to the bishop's high regard for the Faith and communion of the Catholic Church and on account of St. Athanasius being such a great sufferer (a “white martyr”). St. Antony was surprised that St. Paul knew of his cloak, but was given to understand that God Himself had revealed it. So St. Antony hurried home to fetch the cloak. He made all haste for he feared that St. Paul would die before he returned. This premonition proved correct. On the return journey, St. Antony saw St. Paul's happy soul being carried to heaven, attended by choirs of angels, prophets and apostles.
St. Antony found the body of St. Paul kneeling and at prayer with arms stretched out in a crucified form. He paid his last respects and then carried the body out of the cave, perplexed as to how to bury him. Yet two lions approached, as if in mourning, and tore up the ground, digging a hole large enough for the reception and burial of a human body. Wrapping the corpse in the cloak of St. Athanasius, Antony was thus able to bury the corpse of St. Paul, the first hermit. He sang hymns and psalms and then returned home praising God for all that had occurred, most especially for the lesson he had received in humility despite his advanced age and mastery of many virtues. Humility is the first indispensable step towards sanctity, yet it is perhaps also the most difficult virtue to acquire. Every faithful disciple of Christ must unceasingly exert himself towards its more complete acquisition.
St. Antony related to all the monks in the surrounding deserts what he had seen and done. He also kept with him a relic of St. Paul, which was his greatest treasure: a raiment of palm-tree leaves patched together. St. Antony would only wear this humble garb on the greatest of Church festivals, such as Easter. St. Paul the First Hermit died in 342 AD when he was 113 years old, after spending 90 years in isolation.