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

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, at great personal risk, the deposition of Patriarch Flavian of Constantinople and unsuccessfully supported the 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 of 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. During his brief papacy, he also built several churches, convents, and public buildings.

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 at Rome before becoming pope. When still a deacon, he was sent as a legates of Pope Leo I to the Synod of Ephesus in 449, which had been called as an ecumenical council under Patriarch Dioscorus of Alexandria. Patriarch Flavian of Constantinople, had earlier presided over a synod which condemned the Alexandrian monk Euthyches on charges of Monophysitism. Leo I intended that his dogmatic letter supporting Flavian's position 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, his fellow Alexandrian. He and the majority of the delegates anathematized Flavian and declared him to be deposed. Anatolius, a partisan of Dioscurus, was appointed to succeed him as patriarch of Constantinople. The preserved proceedings of the council indicate that Hilarius protested the deposition of the Flavian in his pope's name. 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.

Fearing for his own life, Hilarius escaped and traveled by back roads 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, Hilarius 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

In his brief reign 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 also counteracted the imperial toleration of heresy and built or improved several churches.

Rome's authority in Gaul and Spain

Hilarius continued and furthered 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 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 then 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 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.

The pope soon 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. Hilarius 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.

He also gave decisions to the churches of Hispania, which tended to operate outside the papal orbit in the fifth century. Silvanus, bishop of Calahorra, had allegedly violated church laws by his episcopal ordinations, and the pope was asked by other local bishops 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, Bishop Nundinarius of Barcelona expressed a wish that a certain Irenaeus might be chosen his successor. A synod at Tarragona confirmed the nomination, after which the bishops sought the pope's approval. The Roman synod of November 19 465, held in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, which settled the matters, is the oldest Roman synod whose original records have survived.

Relations with the emperor

In Rome, Hilarius worked zealously to counter the new emperor's edict of toleration for schismatic sects (467). The policy was reportedly inspired by a favorite of Emperor Anthemius named Philotheus, who espoused the Macedonian heresy. On one of the emperor's visits to Saint Peter's, the pope openly called him to account for his favorite's conduct, exhorting him by the grave of Peter to promise that he would allow no schismatic assemblies in Rome.

Other contributions

Another of Hilarius' legacy was the institution, in 467, of the new mass, a complete revamping of catholic liturgy meant to modernize the church rituals, considered too obscure for the new generation of converts and returning schismatics.

Hilarus erected several churches and other buildings in Rome, for which Liber Pontificalis praises him: two oratories in the baptistery of the Lateran, one in honor of John the Baptist, the other of John the Apostle, to whom he attributed his safe escape from the Council of Ephesus. He also erected a chapel of the Holy Cross, 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 November 17 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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