Paul of Thebes was born around 227 in the Thebaid of Egypt.
Paul and his married sister lost their parents. In order to obtain Paul's inheritance, his brother-in-law sought to betray him to the persecutors. According to Jerome's Vitae Patrum, Paul fled to the Theban desert as a young man during the persecution of Decius and Valerianus around AD 250.
Paul of Thebes is asserted by some to have been the earliest Christian hermit and the founder of monasticism, though this distinction is more generally assigned to St. Anthony. There are three important versions of the life of Paul: the Latin version by St. Jerome (Vita Pauli), and two Greek versions (first published in 1900 by Bidez), in all of which the account is substantially the same. Paul was reputedly an Egyptian of good birth and education who at about the age of 16 fled into the desert near Thebes to escape the Decian persecution. There he lived undisturbed in a cave in the mountainside until he was 113 years old, when he was visited and comforted by St. Anthony, who had been living the life of a hermit nearby for 90 years. On a second visit shortly afterwards St. Anthony found Paul dead and buried him.
His feast day is celebrated on January 15 in the West, on January 5 or January 15 in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and on 2 Meshir (February 9) in the Oriental Orthodox Churches. Saint Anthony described him as "the first monk".
St. Paul's Monastery is traditionally believed to be on the site of the cave where the saint lived and where his remains are kept. The monastery is located in the eastern desert mountains of Egypt near the Red Sea. The Cave Church of St. Paul marks the spot where St. Anthony, "the Father of Monasticism", and St. Paul, "the First Hermit", are believed to have met.
He is also the patron saint of the Diocese of San Pablo (Philippines) and is the titular of the Cathedral of the said Diocese in San Pablo, Laguna, Philippines.
The Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit was founded in Hungary in his honour in the 13th century. He is usually represented with a palm tree, two lions and a raven.
