Confessor Pope Hilary

Pope Saint Hilarius, commonly called Hilary in English and often styled Pope and Confessor in older liturgical books, was Bishop of Rome in the mid-fifth century. The Liber Pontificalis identifies him as a Sardinian by origin (natione Sardus). No reliable source records a year or town of birth, and none should be supplied by conjecture. He belonged to the Roman clergy under Pope Leo I, serving as deacon and later as archdeacon. In 449 Leo sent him as a papal legate, with Bishop Julius of Puteoli and the notary Dulcitius, to the council held at Ephesus under Dioscorus of Alexandria. That assembly, afterwards repudiated in the West as the Latrocinium or Robber Council, restored the archimandrite Eutyches and deposed Flavian of Constantinople. Hilarius opposed these proceedings in the name of the Roman see. Contemporary notices, including his own later correspondence, indicate that he had to flee Ephesus. Roman tradition later connected his escape with a vow to Saint John the Evangelist, which he is said to have fulfilled by building an oratory after he became pope.

After the death of Leo I, Hilarius was elected his successor and consecrated in November 461. His pontificate lasted until 468. He sought to uphold the Christological definition of the Council of Chalcedon (451) and to restore disciplinary order in the Western churches after the crises of the mid-century. In Gaul he addressed disputes over metropolitan rights, especially those claimed by the see of Arles, and the contested status of Hermes of Narbonne. A Roman synod held in 465 under his presidency issued decisions on these Gallic questions and insisted that major ecclesiastical causes be referred to Rome. He also wrote to bishops in Hispania about ordinations performed contrary to the canons and about the duty to hold regular provincial councils. The surviving or summarized letters show a pope intent on uniformity of discipline and on the authority of the Roman church amid Vandal pressure in the Mediterranean and political instability in Italy.

The Liber Pontificalis credits Hilarius with a substantial program of building and furnishing in Rome, though its inventories must be used with caution. At the Lateran baptistery he is said to have constructed or decorated oratories of Saint John the Baptist, Saint John the Evangelist, and the Holy Cross, providing silver vessels and mosaic ornament; the Evangelist chapel was linked to his deliverance at Ephesus. He is also associated with gifts to the basilicas of Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint Lawrence, and Saint Mary, and with regulations for liturgical service and the custody of sacred vessels. The connection of his name with the Lateran baptistery chapels is a stable element of Roman tradition even where exact lists of donations remain uncertain.

Hilarius died in Rome in 468. The date is commonly given as 29 February (468 was a leap year) or 28 February. He was buried at the Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls (San Lorenzo fuori le Mura). He has been venerated as a saint from an early period, without a later formal process of canonization, and is therefore counted among the pre-congregation saints. The title Confessor marks him as a saint who was not a martyr. His feast has been observed on 28 February in many Western calendars; some older references mention 17 November. No spouse or children are attested, which accords with the celibate discipline expected of the higher Roman clergy in his age. Apart from official letters and the brief papal biography, personal details of his life remain sparse.