St. Hilary of Poitiers

Their story

Hilary was born around 310 in Poitiers, in Gaul, today's France, into a wealthy pagan family. He received an excellent education, married and had a daughter. As a grown man he began searching for the meaning of life. Reading the Scriptures, especially the opening of St. John's Gospel, he came to believe in the one God who became flesh in Jesus Christ. He asked for baptism and gave his life to Christ. Around 350 the people of Poitiers chose Hilary as their bishop. At that time the Arian heresy, which taught that Jesus is not truly God, had the support of the emperor and of many bishops. Hilary refused to go along. In 356 the emperor Constantius exiled him to Phrygia, in Asia Minor. Hilary used his years of exile to study the theology of the Eastern Church and to write his great work On the Trinity, defending the truth that the Son is fully God with the Father. Hilary returned to Poitiers around 360 and continued to work for unity and the true faith. He wrote hymns so that ordinary believers could sing what they believed, and he is among the first hymn writers in the Latin Church. He welcomed a young former soldier named Martin, who became St. Martin of Tours, and helped him begin a monastery near Poitiers. Hilary died around 367. He is sometimes called "the Athanasius of the West," and in 1851 he was declared a Doctor of the Church.