St. Hilarion the New, Abbot of Pelecete

Hilarion the New was abbot of the monastery of Pelecete on the southern shore of the Black Sea in Bithynia in the eighth century — a great Constantinopolitan-style cenobitic foundation that under his governance grew into one of the principal monasteries of the region. The community housed several hundred monks at its height and was known for its production of Greek liturgical books and for its school of iconography.

When iconoclasm broke out under Leo III the Isaurian in 726, the monastery of Pelecete became a focal point of monastic resistance. Hilarion refused to subscribe to the imperial decrees, refused to cease the veneration of the icons in the monastery's liturgy, and refused to surrender the monastery's icon collection (much of which the brothers had hidden in caves outside the monastery walls). Imperial troops were sent in 753 to compel the community. Hilarion was beaten, imprisoned, and exiled — passed from one place of confinement to another through the rest of his life.

He died in exile around 754, after the second great wave of monastic persecution under Constantine V Copronymus. His feast falls on March 28.