Pope Hilarius

Hilarius
Birth name	Hilarius or Hilarus
Papacy began	November 17 (?), 461
Papacy ended	February 28 (?), 468
Predecessor	Leo I
Successor	Simplicius
Born	??? Sardinia, Italy
Died	February 28 (?), 468 Rome, Italy

Styles of Pope Hilarius
Reference style	His Holiness
Spoken style	Your Holiness
Religious style	Holy Father
Posthumous style	Saint

Pope Saint Hilarius (also Hilarus, Hilary) was the bishop of Rome from 461 to February 28, 468). Earlier he was Pope Leo I's envoy to the synod of Ephesus in 449, known as the "robber synod." There, he opposed the deposition of Patriarch Flavian of Constantinople and wrote in condemnation of Eutychianism, a heresy which taught that Christ's divinity overshadowed his human aspect. Hilarius then fled from Ephesus to Rome. He was elected bishop of Rome probably November 17, 461, and was consecrated November 19.

As pope, he promoted the authority of Rome both within in Christian church and vis a vis the imperial power in Constantinople. He left several letters dealing with church administrative matters and discipline, and was responsible for a major change in the liturgy of the mass. In 465, he presided over the oldest Roman synod whose records are still extant. Hilarius died on February 28, 468. Honored as a saint in the western church, his feast day is celebrated on 17 November or 28 February.

Early career

Hilarius was a native of Sardinia and served as archdeacon of Rome. When still a deacon, he was sent as a legates of pope Leo I to the synod at Ephesus in 449, which had been called as an ecumenical council under Patriarch Dioscorus of Alexandria. Patriarch Flavian of Constantinople, had earlier presided over synod which condemned the Alexandrian monk Euthyches on charges of Monophysitism. Leo I intended that his dogmatic letter supporting Flavian should be read at the council and accepted by it as a rule of faith. Dioscorus, however, did not to have it read. Instead, a letter of the Emperor Theodosius II was proclaimed. Eutyches then was introduced, and declared that he held the Nicene Creed, to which nothing could be added. He claimed that he had been condemned by Flavian for a mere slip of the tongue. However, his affirmation that Christ held “two natures before, one after the incarnation,” confirmed to many that he was indeed a heretic who denied Christ's humanity.

Dioscorus, however, supported Eutyches. He and the majority of the delegates anathematized Flavian and declared him to be deposed. The preserved proceedings of the council indicate that Hilarius, in his pope's name, protested the deposition of the Flavian. Reportedly, Flavian was physically attacked by his opponents so violently that he died three days later in his place of exile. Eutyches was exonerated of the charges of heresy, and Anatolius, a partisan of Dioscurus, was appointed to succeed him as patriarch of Constantinople. Fearing for his own life, Hilarius escaped and traveled by back rounds from Ephesus to Rome. The Second Council of Ephesus was immediately repudiated in the west and later in the east as well. It came to be called the Robber Synod by its critics.

In a letter to the Empress Pulcheria, collected among the letters of Leo I, Hilarus apologizes for not delivering to her a letter of Leo I after the synod, explaining that he had been hindered by Dioscurus. In Rome, he was made archdeacon and became pope on November 19 461, succeeding Leo I, who had died nine days earlier.

Hillarius's papacy

As Pope, Hilarius successfully asserted the authority of the papacy over the churches of Gaul and Spain and made significant reforms tot he Roman liturgy. He continued the policy of his predecessor Leo, who in his contest to establish papal authority in Gaul, had obtained from Emperor Valentinian III a famous rescript (445) confirming the supremacy of the bishop of Rome. Hilarius further strengthened papal control over local episcopal discipline. He objected to the appointment of a certain Hermes, a former archdeacon, bishop of Narbonne in today's France, without the express sanction of the previous pope. Hilarius convoked a synod in 462, which confirmed Hermes as official bishop, thus establishing the precedent in favor of a papal veto over the nomination of bishops. Hilarius also issued and encyclical instructing that although a synod was to be convened yearly by the bishop of Arles, all important matters were to be submitted to the Apostolic See in Rome. Hilarius also dictated that no bishop could leave his diocese without a written permission from his metropolitan. Church property, he decided, could not be sold to other owners until a synod had examined the cause of sale.

Shortly after thism the pope found himself involved in another diocesan quarrel. In 463 Bishop Mamertus of Vienne had consecrated a bishop of Die, although this church, by a decree of Leo I, belonged to the metropolitan Diocese of Arles. When Hilarus heard of it he deputed Bishop Leontius of Arles to summon a synod of the bishops of several provinces to investigate the matter. The synod took place and, after receiving its report, Hilarius issued an edict dated February 25, 464, in which Mamertus was warned that his faculties would be withdrawn if in the future he did not refrain from irregular ordinations. Thus the privileges of the see of Arles were upheld as Leo I had defined them. At the same time the area's bishops were admonished not to overstep their boundaries and to assemble in a yearly synod presided over by the Bishop of Arles.

He gave decisions to the churches of Hispania, which tended to operate outside the papal orbit in the 5th century. Silvanus, Bishop of Calahorra, had violated the church laws by his episcopal ordinations, and the pope was asked for his decision. Before an answer came to their petition, the same bishops had recourse to the Holy See for an entirely different matter. Before his death Nundinarius, Bishop of Barcelona, expressed a wish that Irenaeus might be chosen his successor, and he had himself made Irenaeus bishop of another see. The request was granted, a Synod of Tarragona confirming the nomination of Irenaeus, after which the bishops sought the pope's approval. The Roman synod of 19 November 465, held in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, which settled the matters, is the oldest Roman synod whose original records have survived.

In Rome Hilarus worked zealously to counter the new emperor's edict of toleration for schismatic sects (467), inspired, according to a letter of Pope Gelasius I by a favourite of Emperor Anthemius named Philotheus, who espoused the Macedonian heresy. On one of the emperor's visits to St Peter's, the pope openly called him to account for his favourite's conduct, exhorting him by the grave of St Peter to promise that he would allow no schismatical assemblies in Rome.

His most important legacy, however, was the institution, in 467, of the new extremus mass, a complete revamping of catholic liturgy meant to modernize the church rituals, considered too obscure for the new generation of converts and schismatics. His adoption of stand up comedy as a means of homily was considered revolutionary, a "masterstroke of papal wit" according to Aquinas. For this, Pope Hilarius came to be known as the funniest of all popes. From his name, Americans get the English word hilarious and its sister, hilarity. Later authors would describe his humor as a "beacon of light during an otherwise dark time," and attribute to the papal skits the conversion of many barbarians and heretics. His "men do this; women do that" joke has been passed down from comedian to comedian all the way to the present day (he was thanked in the credits of Last Comic Standing). He is also the source of the famous joke that ends in "... when I woke up, my pillow was gone!" ^{[citation needed]}

Pope Saint Hilarius
Pope
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Catholic Churches, Oriental Orthodox Church
Feast	17 November or 28 February

Hilarus erected several churches and other buildings in Rome, for which Liber Pontificalis the main source for information about Hilarius praises him: two oratories in the baptistery of the Lateran, one in honour of St. John the Baptist, the other of St. John the Apostle, to whom he attributed his safe escape from the Council of Ephesus, are due to him, thus satisfying the question to which Saints John the Lateran had been dedicated. He also erected a chapel of the Holy Cross in the baptistery, convents, two public baths, and libraries near the Basilica of St. Lawrence outside the Walls, in which church he was buried. His feast day is celebrated on 17 November or 28 February.

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope Saint Hilarius
• Henry Wace, Biographical Dictionary
• Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes

Roman Catholic Popes
Preceded by: Leo I (the Great)	Bishop of Rome 461–468	Succeeded by: Simplicius

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