HILARION OF MOGLIN

On November 3 (October 21), the Church celebrates the memory of St. Hilarion of Moglen (+1164). The saint was an ascetic, abbot of the monastery, theologian, missionary, and later bishop of the Orthodox Balkan lands.

The life reports that Hilarion went to a monastery at the age of 18, where he was subsequently elected abbot. For the last thirty years of his life, the saint was bishop of the city of Moglen, the ruins of which are located in modern Central Macedonia near the small town of Aridea in Greece.

Hilarion’s election to the episcopate is associated with the name of Archbishop Eustathius of Ohrid, who was instructed in a special vision “not to postpone laying the lamp on the candlestick of Orthodoxy” (cf.Mt.5:14). The historical circumstances of that time allow us to better understand the circumstances of such an election.

The Balkan lands then suffered especially from the incredible spread of the Bogomil heresy. Like the Manichaeans of antiquity, the Bogomils were a dualistic doctrine, that is, they taught about the existence of two gods, or two principles, good and evil. They radically distorted the meaning of the Holy Scriptures, and through careful conspiracy destroyed the church structures into which they were embedded. The Bogomils successfully attracted to their side both the unenlightened masses of the population, as well as representatives of the intellectual elite and the power hierarchy. Tradition connects with the name of Hilarion the compilation of a special exhortatory “Dogmatic epistle” to the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (1143-1180), who, as it seemed to some, himself sympathized with heretics. The latter circumstance testifies both to Hilarion’s boldness in the face of the powers that be, and that his activities should be perceived in the broad context of universal Orthodox Christianity.

Byzantine Orthodoxy was then troubled by the controversy with the Latins, and later was shaken by Hesychastic disputes. Apparently, the polemiс against Bogomilism, which was much more important in religious terms, was perceived by the “Romans” in Constantinople as too “provincial” and eventually moved to another plane. Modern researchers believe that the Orthodox inhabitants of the Balkan countries and territories, who had become bogomils by that time, no longer returned to Orthodoxy with the advent of the Ottomans, but converted to Islam. The life of St. Hilarion testifies to subsequent Christian generations that there are no secondary topics in theology of fundamental Christian truths.

Preserved in the narrative about Hilarion allows us to recreate his image, an ascetic monk, theologian, and later a bishop during the Second Bulgarian Kingdom (1185-1396) — a medieval Orthodox monarchy, the history of which ceased under the blows of the Ottomans.

His life was written by the great spiritual writer and ascetic of that era, Patriarch Euthymius of Tarnovo (1325-1403). By the time the life was compiled, almost a century and a half had already passed since the death of Hilarion in that turbulent time, so, unfortunately, detailed information about the biography of the saint had not reached us.

The veneration of Hilarion in the saints began after his death. The autumn celebration of his memory is connected with the transfer of his relics, which took place in 1204 under the Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan (1196-1207). Then Constantinople fell under the blows of the Crusaders, and the glorification of the new Bulgarian saint was probably associated with the idea to take away the Orthodox Imperial succession from the Byzantines. The saint was especially revered in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, but his church activities were not of any national character, but were filled with Orthodox evangelization and Christian enlightenment.

Since the date of his death has not been preserved in history, his memorial day was dedicated to the memory of his heavenly patron, Hilarion the Great (291-371), who was the founder of Christian monasticism in Gaza. Another patron saint of the Bulgarian saint can be considered the Father of the Church, Augustine of Hippo (354-430). After all, it was he who in his works expounded in detail, criticized and totally deconstructed the doctrine of Manichaeism, which many centuries later, already under Hilarion of Moglin, was actually repeated by the Bogomils. Since Augustine’s works had not been translated into Greek, Saint Hilarion had to work anew on Orthodox argumentation. Such an amazing and somewhat sad manifestation of the continuity of the Fathers and the Communion of Saints, which is spoken about in the ancient Creed of the Holy Apostles.