Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Hilarius (also Hilarus, Hilary) was Pope from 461
to February 28, 468). He was canonized as Saint
Hilarius after his death.

The Sardinian archdeacon of Rome, Hilarius was
elected bishop of Rome probably November 17, 461,
and was consecrated November 19, 461 and died on
February 28 (?), 468. 

As archdeacon under Pope Leo I he fought
vigorously for the rights of the Roman See and
vigorously opposed the condemnation of
Flavian of Constantinople at the Council of
Ephesus, 449, the notorious "Robber Synod" or
Latrocinium (Catholic Encyclopedia) to settle the
question of Eutyches. According to a letter to the
Empress Pulcheria, collected among the letter of
Leo I, Hilarus apologizes for not delivering to
her the pope's letter after the synod; but owing
to Dioscurus of Alexandria, who tried to hinder
his going either to Rome or to Constantinople, he
had great difficulty in making his escape in order
to bring to the pontiff the news of the result of
the council.

As Pope, he continued the policy of his
predecessor Leo, who in his contest with  Hilary
of Arles|Hilary, bishop of Arles for supremacy in
Gaul, had obtained from Valentinian III a famous
rescript (445) confirming  the supremacy of the
bisop of Rome. Hilarius continued to strengthen
papal control over episcopal discipline. At
Narbonne, Hermes, a former archdeacon, had been
nominated by his predecessor and installed as
bishop without the express sanction of Pope Leo.
Hilarius convoked a synod in 462, which confirmed
Hermes as titular bishop, withholding his
faculties as metropolitan (Wace). Other decisions
expressed in an encyclical were in the interests
of increased discipline: A synod was to be
convened yearly by the Bishop of Arles, but all
important matters were to be submitted to the
Apostolic See. No bishop could leave his diocese
without a written permission from his
metropolitan, with a right of appeal to the Bishop
of Arles. Respecting the parishes (paroeciae)
claimed by Leontius, bishop of Arles as belonging
to his jurisdiction, the Gallican bishops could
decide, after an investigation. Church property
could not be alienated until a synod had examined
into the cause of sale.  

Shortly after this the pope found himself involved
in another diocesan quarrel. In 463 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 Leontius of Arles to summon a
great synod of the bishops of several provinces to
investigate the matter. The synod took place and,
on the strength of the report given him by Bishop
Antonius, he issued an edict dated 25 February,
464, in which Bishop Veranus was commissioned to
warn Mamertus that, if in the future he did not
refrain from irregular ordinations, his faculties
would be withdrawn. Consequently the consecration
of the Bishop of Die must be sanctioned by
Leontius of Arles. Thus the primatial privileges
of the See of Arles were upheld as Leo I had
defined them. At the same time the bishops were
admonished not to overstep their boundaries, and
to assemble in a yearly synod presided over by the
Bishop of Arles. The metropolitan rights of the
See of Embrun also over the dioceses of the
Maritime Alps were protected against the
encroachments of a certain Bishop Auxanius,
particularly in connection with the two Churches
of Nice and Cimiez.

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,
although 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 toleation 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. 

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
Church of St. Laurence Outside the Walls.   

He was buried in the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori
le Mura. His feast day is celebrated on 17
November.

==External links==
*http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07348b.htm
Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope Saint Hilarius
*http://www.ccel.org/w/wace/biodict/htm/iii.viii.x
xxiii.htm Henry Wace, Biographical Dictionary 


Pope|
Predecessor=Pope Leo I|Saint Leo I 
 (the
Great)|
Successor=Pope Simplicius|Saint
Simplicius|Dates=461–468