Saint Hilary of Poitiers
Bishop and Doctor of the Church
- Feast Day
- January 13
- Life
- 315–367
- Doctor of the Church
- 1851
- Born
- Poitiers, Gaul
Hilary was born about 315 in Poitiers in Roman Gaul to a pagan family of senatorial rank. By his own account, in De Trinitate book I, he was led from philosophy to Christian faith through reading the Scriptures, especially the prologue of John's Gospel and the divine name in Exodus 3:14. He was baptized as an adult, and about 350 the Christian community of Poitiers chose him as bishop, although he was a married layman.
His episcopate was dominated by the Arian crisis. When in 356 the synod of Beziers, dominated by Arianizing bishops with imperial backing, refused to accept his defense of Nicene faith, the emperor Constantius II banished him to Phrygia in Asia Minor. There he composed his greatest dogmatic work, the twelve books De Trinitate, in which he set forth the eternal generation and consubstantial divinity of the Son.
The Eastern bishops eventually found his presence so troublesome that they sent him back to Gaul; on the way he composed his Liber contra Constantium and his De Synodis, which sought to interpret Eastern terminology in a Nicene sense for Western readers. Restored to Poitiers about 360, he led the Gallic bishops in a synodal restoration of orthodoxy.
Hilary died at Poitiers in 367. He is the first identified Latin theologian to write hymns; four are attributed to him, partly preserved. Pope Pius IX declared him a Doctor of the Universal Church in 1851. The General Roman Calendar inscribes his Optional Memorial on January 13.
Hilary's De Trinitate gave the Latin Church its first comprehensive theology of the Trinity in dialogue with Eastern thought, earning him the title "Athanasius of the West." His exile witnessed that pastoral office obliges the bishop to confess the faith even at the cost of his see. His introduction of liturgical hymns into the West prepared the way for Ambrose and the Latin liturgical tradition.
Patronages
against snake bites · Poitiers
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Hilary of Poitiers
6 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Hilary of Poitiers's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St. Hilary — Tiburon, CA
- Saint Hilary Catholic Church — Raceland, LA
- St. Hilary — Fairlawn, OH
- Saint Hilary Catholic Church — Pico Rivera, CA
- St. Hilary of Poitiers — Rydal, PA
- Saint Hilary Roman Catholic Church — Chicago, IL
Sources