HILARY, POPE, ST.

Pontificate: Nov. 19, 461, to Feb. 29, 468. Hilary, successor to Leo the Great and archdeacon of the Roman Church, was a Sardinian by birth, whose father was Crispinus. As papal legate at the Robber Council of ephesus, he barely escaped when pursued by soldiers of dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria, who was angered by his support of the Patriarch of Constantinople, flavian.

His pontificate was relatively quiet; the affairs of the Western Church occupied him. The barbarian Ricimer ruled in Italy, making and unmaking emperors at will. Hilary attempted to reestablish the vicariate of Arles over Gaul as in the days of Patroclus under Pope zosimus, but without success, as the Bishop Leontius was not eager to assume a vigorous role. When Ascanius, Metropolitan of Tarragona in Spain, appealed a complaint to him against Silvanus of Calahorra, the pope convened a council (Nov. 19, 465) in the church of S. Maria Maggiore. The Spanish bishops were notified by a synodal letter after the rights of the metropolitan were upheld. This was the first such council whose exact minutes, including the pope's allocution and the acclamations of the fathers, have come down to us; according to its regulations a dying bishop was prohibited from appointing his own successor.

Since Hilary attributed his escape at Ephesus to the intervention of St. John the Evangelist, when he became pope he built three chapels adjoining the Lateran Baptistry: one dedicated to St. John the Baptist, another to St. John the Evangelist, and a third to the Holy Cross. The first two are still standing, both with their original bronze doors. He erected a monastery near S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura and was buried in this church "beside the body of blessed Bishop Xystus." The exact location of his tomb is unknown.

The commemoration of Hilary in the martyrology of st. jerome on September 10 seems to have been an error.

Feast: Feb. 28.

Bibliography: Patrologia Latina, ed. j. p. migne (Paris 1878–90) 58:11–31; Patrologiae cursus completus, series latina ; suppl. ed. a. hamman (Paris 1957–) 3:379–381, 441–443, editions. Clavis Patrum latinorum, ed. e. dekkers (Streenbrugge 1961) 1662–63. a. thiel, ed., Epistolae romanorum pontificum (Braunsberg 1868–) 1:126–170. Liber pontificalis, ed. l. duchesne (Paris 1886–92, 1958) 1:242–248; 3.86. e. caspar, Geschichte de Papsttums von den Aufängen bis zur Höhe der Weltherrschaft (Tübingen 1930–33) 2:10–14, 745–746. h. leclercq, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, ed. f. cabrol, h. leclercq and h. i. marrou (Paris 1907–53) 13.1:1210. g. bardy, a. fliche and v. martin, eds., Histoire de l'église depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours (Paris 1935–) 4:337–338. g. ferrari, Early Roman Monasteries (Rome 1957) 182, 184, 315. r. u. montini, Le tombe dei Papi (Rome 1957) 103. g. schwaiger, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 3d. ed. (Freiburg 1996).

[j. chapin]