Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Bishop, Confessor & Doctor
S. Hilarii Episcopi Confessoris et Ecclesiae Doctoris
Saint Hilary of Poitiers, the great defender of the divinity of Christ in the West, is honoured as a Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church.
Saint Hilary was born of a noble pagan family at Poitiers in Gaul, about the year 315. Coming to the Christian faith as a grown man through his study of the Scriptures, he was baptised together with his wife and daughter, and so lived in such holiness that the people of Poitiers chose him as their bishop around the year 350.
Defender of the faith
Saint Hilary lived in the age when the Arian heresy, which denied that the Son of God is truly God, equal and consubstantial with the Father, troubled the whole Church. He became one of its foremost opponents in the Latin West, and for his courage he has been called the “Athanasius of the West.” For refusing to compromise the faith of Nicæa, he was exiled by the imperial power to Phrygia in the East for some four years.
His exile became a gift to the whole Church, for there he composed his great work On the Trinity, a sustained defence of the eternal Godhead of Christ drawn from the Scriptures. He laboured for unity among the bishops who held the true faith, and on his return to Gaul he continued to strengthen the Church against error until his death about the year 367.
Doctor of the Church
For the depth and orthodoxy of his teaching, Saint Hilary was declared a Doctor of the Church. He was among the first in the Latin Church to write hymns for the people, that sound doctrine might be carried in song. His writings on the mystery of the Holy Trinity remain a treasure of the Church’s tradition, witnessing that the Word made flesh is no creature, but true God of true God.
The collect of his feast fittingly asks that we who have him as a teacher of life on earth may have him as an intercessor in heaven — a reminder that the Church’s doctors are not only masters of truth but friends who pray for us before the throne of God.
The Collect
O God, who didst give blessed Hilary to be thy people’s minister of eternal salvation: grant, we beseech thee; that we, who have had him for a teacher of life on earth, may deserve to have him as an intercessor in heaven.
Deus, qui pópulo tuo ætérnæ salútis beátum Hilárium minístrum tribuísti: præsta, quæsumus; ut, quem Doctórem vitæ habúimus in terris, intercessórem habére mereámur in cælis.
Patronage
He is invoked against snakebite and for sick children, and is honoured as a patron of those who teach and defend the faith.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar his feast is observed on 13 January as an optional memorial.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Hilary of Poitiers?
In the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal his feast is kept on 14 January as a Third Class feast. In the modern calendar it is observed on 13 January.
Who was Saint Hilary?
He was the fourth-century Bishop of Poitiers in Gaul, a convert from paganism who became the chief defender of the divinity of Christ in the Latin West against the Arian heresy. He was exiled for the faith and is honoured as a Doctor of the Church.
Why is he called the ‘Athanasius of the West’?
Like Saint Athanasius in the East, Saint Hilary defended the orthodox faith of the Council of Nicæa — that the Son is consubstantial with the Father — against the Arians, and suffered exile for it. His great work On the Trinity remains a classic of Catholic doctrine.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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