8th–9th century
Saint Hilarion the New, Abbot of the Dalmatou Monastery
Monk from Cappadocia who became abbot of the Dalmatou Monastery in Constantinople and suffered imprisonment and exile under the iconoclasts for venerating icons.
Biography
Hilarion was born in 775 in Cappadocia, the son of Peter, a supplier of bread to the imperial palace. He became a monk in Constantinople, first at a monastery in the city and later at the Dalmatou Monastery, where he served as gardener and was later elected abbot.
When Iconoclasm broke out, Emperor Leo the Armenian and Patriarch Theodotos tried in vain to make him renounce the veneration of icons. For eight years he endured imprisonment, beatings and exile, until after the Triumph of Orthodoxy he returned to his monastery, where he died peacefully at the age of 70, in 845.