Pater Hilarion exists, but he is not time-bound. Hilarion would be comfortable with Basho or Merton, with Gandhi or Thoreau. He is a healthy "animus." Author Gary Young writes: "I am not sure who his biographer is, but I do have an occasional visitor, who joins me in solitude and who furnishes me with glimpses of a superior Christian, whose contemplative spirit bears fruit in common sense." Despite some unfamiliar monastic allusions, these stories should appeal to the simplest reader. If they did not, then Hilarion might be guilty of the usual religiosity. Instead, Hilarion shows that wisdom has a sense of humor.