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Hilary of Poitiers

Hilary of Poitiers (Latin: Hilarius Pictaviensis; c. 310 – c. 367)[2] was Bishop of Poitiers and a Doctor of the Church. He was sometimes referred to as the "Hammer of the Arians" (Malleus Arianorum) and the "Athanasius of the West".[3] His name comes from the Latin word for happy or cheerful. In addition to his important work as bishop, Hilary was married and the father of Abra of Poitiers, a nun and saint who became known for her charity.


Hilary of Poitiers

c. 367 (aged c. 56–57)
Pictavium, Septem Provinciae, Roman Empire

13 January
14 January (Byzantine Christianity; some local calendars and pre-1970 General Roman Calendar)

episcopal vestments, a mitre and crozier, and usually white and often long beard[1]

Early life[edit]

Hilary was born at Poitiers either at the end of the 3rd or beginning of the 4th century A.D.[4] His parents were pagans of distinction. He received a good education,[5] which included a high level of Greek.[6] He studied, later on, the Old and New Testament writings, with the result that he abandoned his Neoplatonism for Christianity, and with his wife and his daughter, traditionally known as Saint Abra of Poitiers, was baptized and received into the Church.[3]


Arianism was becoming popular among Christians in this era and this theological position was supported by Constantine the Great. There were a series of violent battles between Trinitarians and Arians.


In 353, the Trinitarian Christians of Arles elected Hilary as bishop as the existing bishop, Saturninus of Arles, was an Arian.[7] At the Council of Arles, the legates of Pope Liberius refused to condemn Arianism and considered formally opposing Athanasius of Alexandria, who was a strong advocate of Trinitarianism against Arianism. Hilary still managed to secure the local excommunication, by those of the Gallican hierarchy who were his allies, of Bishop Saturninus and two of his prominent supporters, Bishops Ursacius of Singidunum and Valens of Mursa.[3]


About the same time, Hilary wrote to Emperor Constantius II a remonstrance against the persecutions by which the Arians had sought to crush their opponents (Ad Constantium Augustum liber primus, of which the most probable date is 355).[3] Other historians refer to this first book to Constantius as the "Book Against Valens", of which only fragments are extant.[8] His efforts did not succeed at first, for at the synod of Biterrae (Béziers), summoned by the emperor in 356 with the professed purpose of settling the longstanding dispute, an imperial rescript banished the new bishop, along with Rhodanus of Toulouse, to Phrygia, a stronghold of Arianism.[9][10]


Hilary spent nearly four years in exile, although the reasons for this banishment remain obscure. The traditional explanation is that Hilary was exiled for refusing to subscribe to the condemnation of Athanasius and the Nicene faith. More recently several scholars have suggested that political opposition to Constantius and support of the usurper Claudius Silvanus may have led to Hilary's exile.[4]

Later life[edit]

On returning to his diocese in 361, Hilary spent most of the first two or three years trying to persuade the local clergy that the homoion confession was merely a cover for traditional Arian subordinationism. Thus, a number of synods in Gaul condemned the creed promulgated at the Council of Ariminum (359).[14][15]


In about 360 or 361, with Hilary's encouragement, Martin, the future bishop of Tours, founded a monastery at Ligugé in his diocese.


In 364, Hilary extended his efforts once more beyond Gaul. He impeached Auxentius, bishop of Milan, a man high in the imperial favour, as heterodox. Emperor Valentinian I accordingly summoned Hilary to Milan to there maintain his charges. However, the supposed heretic gave satisfactory answers to all the questions proposed. Hilary denounced Auxentius as a hypocrite as he had been ignominiously expelled from Milan. Upon returning home, Hilary in 365, published the Contra Arianos vel Auxentium Mediolanensem liber, describing his unsuccessful efforts against Auxentius. He also, perhaps at a somewhat earlier date, published the Contra Constantium Augustum liber, accusing the deceased emperor as having been the Antichrist, a rebel against God, "a tyrant whose sole object had been to make a gift to the devil of that world for which Christ had suffered."[11]


According to Jerome, Hilary died in Poitiers in 367.[16]

Paulinus of Nola

Tiberianus

Trochaic septenarius

Carl Beckwith, Hilary of Poitiers on the Trinity: From De Fide to De Trinitate (New York and Oxford, 2009).

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the : Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hilarius, St". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 458–459.

public domain

J. Doignon, Hilaire de Poitiers avant l'exil. Recherches sur la naissance, l'enseignementet l'épreuve d'une foi épiscopale en Gaule au milieu du IVé siècle, EAA, Paris 1971.

Hunter, David G. (2010). "Fourth-century Latin writers". In Young, Frances; Ayres, Lewis; Young, Andrew (eds.). The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature.

Rondeau, Marie Josèphe (1962). "Remarques sur l'anthropologie de saint Hilaire". Studia Patristica. 6 (Papers presented to the Third International Conference on Patristic Studies held at Christ Church, Oxford, 1959, Part IV Theologica, Augustiniana, ed. F. L. Cross). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag: 197–210.

P.T. Wild, The divinization of man according to Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Mundelein, Illinois 1955.

Weedman, Mark (2007). . Leiden-Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-9004162242.

The Trinitarian Theology of Hilary of Poitiers

Alberto Gibilaro, Il Liber hymnorum di Ilario di Poitiers. Introduzione, edizione, traduzione e commento, Milano, Vita e Pensiero, 2023, ISBN 978-88-343-5533-6

at Project Gutenberg

Works by Saint Hilary

at Internet Archive

Works by or about Hilary of Poitiers

The Life and Miracles of St. Hilary of Poitiers, Bishop, Doctor of the Church and Hammer of the Arians

St Hilary of Poitiers: introduction and texts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. IX

Opera Omnia

(in French)

See also patristique.org

General Audience Wednesday, 10 October 2007

BENEDICT XVI: Saint Hilary of Poitiers

The works of Hilary in chronological order.

Life of SAINT HILARY OF POITIERS, in BTM.

at the Christian Iconography web site

Saint Hilary of Poitiers

from Caxton's translation of the Golden Legend

Here Followeth the Life of S. Hilary