St. Hilary of Poiters, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (January 13th)

Of the Saints commemorated this week:

Jan 12 - St. Anthony Pucci, OSM, Priest, Religious (OSM)

Jan 13 – St. Hilary of Poiters, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Jan 15 – Blessed James the Almsgiver, (OSSM)

Jan 17 – St. Anthony of the Desert, Abbot

I have chosen to write about St. Hilary of Poiters, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.

The future St. Hilary was born into a fairly wealthy pagan family at the end of the 3rd century or near the beginning of  the 4th century A.D. in the town of Poiters, in today’s west-central France.  

The town’s history goes back to the Celtic, pre-Roman era when it was founded as a hill fort (oppidium) that the Romans first called Oppidium Lemonum (after apparently a grove of elm trees).  Later the town came to be known as Pictavium after the Celtic tribe, the Pictones, who first lived there. During the Roman era, the town apparently became quite wealthy sporting three aqueducts, a Roman bath complex and a very large amphitheater.

The future St. Hilary received a very high level of education which included Greek.  During his subsequent studies / reading, he came to read the Greek New Testament which resulted in his conversion to Christianity along with his wife and daughter, his daughter was also later recognized as St. Alba of Poiters.

The future  St. Hilary became a Christian at the time Emperor Constantine.

Soon after Constantine legalized Christianity, a significant controversy erupted throughout the Church, regarding Arianism, named after the heresy’s principal proponent named Arius:  

Arius, a presbyter, born a Berber in North Africa, argued that Jesus, the Son, was necessarily somewhat less than the Father.  Soon afterwards, the future St. Athanasius of Alexandria (Egypt), articulated what became the Orthodox position that Jesus, the Son was necessarily of the same substance (equally divine) as the Father, or else Jesus act of Redemption (dying on the cross and rising from the dead) would be necessarily diminished.  

This controversy raged across the Roman Empire reaching the city of Poiters as well.  The future St. Hilary was elected bishop by the Trinitarian (Orthodox) faction the local church because the bishop Saturninus of Arles at the time embraced the Arian faction. 

Lest the eventual outcome of this controversy seem like a foregone conclusion and “all played out well,” like the future St. Athanasius, the future St. Hilary endured exile (in Hilary’s case to Phrygia in Anatolia (modern day Turkey) at nearly the opposite end of the Roman Empire.  It would seem however, that St. Hilary may have been exiled more for political reasons – he opposed the Emperor Constantius II.  But since Emperor Constantius II supported the Arian position, the reasons become rather intertwined.

Five years after being exiled, the future St. Hilary was able to return to his diocese of Poiters.  In subsequent years, he was able to convert or otherwise purge the Arian priests in his midst.  He became known as a very articulate defender of the Orthodox position on Jesus’ nature.

Finally, a contemporary of the future St. Martin of Tours, another famous convert to Christianity from his part of the world, he became the future St. Martin’s spiritual director.  

St. Hilary becomes an example of someone who came to the faith through reading the Gospel, and then one who came to defend its radical implications in his time that God truly became one of us in Jesus.  

The call to defend the faith extends, to our time as well.

St. Hilary of Poiters, pray for us!