Venerable Hilarion the New

Life

Abbot of the Dalmatian Monastery in Constantinople. He was a disciple of Gregory of Decapolis and an imitator of the life of Hilarion the Great, whose name he also took. Powerful in prayer, steadfast and courageous in suffering. And he suffered much for icons in the time of the wicked iconoclast emperors, Leo the Armenian and others. Then Emperor Leo was cut down with swords by his own soldiers in that very church and at that very place where he had first mocked the holy icons and from which he had removed the first icon. Then the holy Hilarion was released from prison. But not for long. He was again tortured and held in prison until the time of the Orthodox Empress Theodora. He was clairvoyant and far-seeing: he saw the angels of God bearing to heaven the soul of Saint Theodore the Studite. Having pleased God, he reposed in the heavenly kingdom in the year 845 in his seventieth year.