According to the Primary Chronicle Hilarion served as a presbyterKotlyar, M. Hilarion (ІЛАРІОН). Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine in a princely residence of Berestove (today in Kyiv). He acquired the reputation of well-educated scholar and upon the death of Metropolitan Theopemptus in 1049, Hilarion was proclaimed the metropolitan of Kiev by council of local bishops on proposition of the Grand prince of Kiev Yaroslav the Wise who thus challenged the old Byzantine tradition of placing Greeks on the episcopal sees. Hilarion was not appointed by the Ecumenical Patriarch Michael I Cerularius.
