St. Hilarius

Hilarius was a Sardinian who had served as a deacon under Leo the Great and attended the stormy Second Council of Ephesus in 449, where he barely escaped with his life after protesting the proceedings. As pope, he worked to maintain discipline in the churches of Gaul and Spain, insisting that bishops could not appoint their own successors. He also built and restored several churches and oratories in Rome, including additions to the Lateran baptistery. His pontificate fell during the final decades of the Western Empire, and he governed with a steady hand while the political world around him fractured.