SaintPre-Congregation
Saint Hilary of Poitiers
Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c.310 to c.367) was Bishop of Poitiers in Gaul and is a Doctor of the Church.
Biography
Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c.310 to c.367) was Bishop of Poitiers in Gaul and is a Doctor of the Church. He was born at Poitiers to pagan parents of rank and was well educated, Greek included. Reading the Scriptures brought him to the Christian faith, and he was baptized with his wife and his daughter, who is remembered as Saint Abra. About 353 the Christians of Poitiers chose him as their bishop.
His years as bishop were given to the defence of the faith of Nicaea against Arianism, which denied that the Son is truly God. He wrote to the emperor Constantius II against the persecution of those who held the Nicene faith, and in 356, at the synod of Béziers, he was banished to Phrygia in Asia Minor. He spent nearly four years there and went on governing his diocese.
In exile he wrote the works for which he is read: the twelve books On the Trinity and On the Synods, which explained the creeds of the Eastern bishops to the bishops of Gaul, Germany and Britain. He pressed his case so persistently that he was sent home, and reached Poitiers about 361, where he worked to win the clergy of Gaul back to the Nicene confession.
He has been called the Hammer of the Arians and the Athanasius of the West. Pope Pius IX recognized him as a Doctor of the Church in 1851. His feast day is 13 January; before 1970 it was kept on 14 January. The Hilary term of the English and Irish law courts and of the universities of Oxford and Dublin takes its name from him, because it begins about his feast.
Also remembered on January 13
Know of a grace or miracle attributed to Saint Hilary of Poitiers?
Report a Grace or Miracle