- Latin:
- Hilarius
- Born:
- c. 315, Poitiers, Gaul [France]
- Died:
- c. 367, Poitiers
- Notable Works:
- “De synodis”
- “Tractatus mysteriorum”
St. Hilary of Poitiers
Who was St. Hilary of Poitiers?
What is St. Hilary of Poitiers the patron saint of?
St. Hilary of Poitiers (born c. 315, Poitiers, Gaul [France]—died c. 367, Poitiers; feast day January 13) was a Gallo-Roman theologian who, as bishop of Poitiers (in what is now France), was a champion of orthodoxy against the heretical doctrine of Arianism. He was the first Latin writer to introduce Greek doctrine to Western Christendom. He was later named a doctor of the church, a title granted to saints of the Roman Catholic Church whose writings are of particular importance. He is venerated as a patron saint of lawyers, mothers, children with disabilities, and sick people, and he is invoked against snake bite.
Proposed by Arius in the 4th century, Arianism was a heresy that disputed the sameness of essence of the Son and the Holy Spirit with God the Father. It was the official orthodoxy of the Eastern Roman Empire until 381, when the Council of Constantinople declared the doctrine of the Trinity, which affirms the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead.
A convert from Neoplatonism, Hilary was elected bishop of Poitiers (c. 353) in Gaul. He was exiled (356–360) to Phrygia by the Roman emperor Constantius II for not condemning the leading opponent of Arianism, St. Athanasius the Great, at the Council of Béziers (356).
While in Phrygia, he wrote De trinitate (The Trinity), the first work in Latin to deal with the issues of the Trinitarian controversies. In De synodis (“Concerning the Synods”) he explained the history of the Arian controversy and directed the faithful in the East to rally against those who believed the Son was unlike the Father. His appeals to Constantius were unsuccessful, and he was expelled from the East. Returning to Poitiers, he spent his last years combating Arianism in Gaul and writing his commentary on the Psalms and Tractatus mysteriorum on typology. His reaffirmation of orthodoxy, almost alone in Gaul, earned him the title of the Athanasius of the West. Probably the earliest hymnist, he composed a book of lyrics (c. 360). He was declared a doctor of the church in 1851 by Pope Pius IX.
