Hilary was born of a noble family in Aquitaine, and was distinguished for his learning and eloquence. He was married but the life he led was almost that of a monk so that later on, on account of his great virtues, he was made Bishop of Poitiers, and so well did he discharge the episcopal office as to be the object of the deepest veneration on the part of the faithful. At that time the Emperor Constantius was inflicting every sort of harsh treatment, intimidation, confiscation of their property and banishment on the Catholics who refused to side with the Arians. Hilary set himself as a bulwark against the Arians, bringing on himself all their fury. On this account they many times sought to ensnare him, and at length, by the treachery of Saturninus, the Bishop of Aries, he was banished from the Council at Beziers into Phrygia. There he raised a dead man to life and wrote his twelve books On the Trinity, against the Arians. Four years later a Council was called at Seleucia, a town in Isauria, at which Hilary was compelled to assist. Thence he set out for Constantinople, where, seeing the extreme dangers to which the true faith had been exposed, he petitioned the Emperor, by three public petitions, to grant him an audience in order that he might obtain permission to hold a controversy with his adversaries concerning matters of faith. But Ursacius and Valens, two Arian Bishops, whom Hilary had refuted in his writings, were afraid of allowing so learned a man to continue there any longer, and persuaded Constantius to restore him to his episcopal see, under the pretence of showing him honour.
Then did the Church of Gaul open her arms, as Saint Jerome says, to receive Hilary on his return from battle with the heretics. Saint Martin, who was afterwards Bishop of Tours, followed the holy Doctor to Poitiers. How much he profited by the instructions of such a master is evidenced by the sanctity of his after-life. From that time he was left in perfect peace in the government of the Church of Poitiers. He led the whole of Gaul to condemn the Arian blasphemies. He composed a great many exceedingly learned books of which Saint Jerome, in a letter to Laeta, says that they may be all read without the slightest fear of meeting any false doctrine in them. He assures her that she may run through the books of Hilary without stumbling on anything dangerous. He passed from this Earth to Heaven on the Ides of January (January 13th), during the reign of the Emperors Valentinian and Valens, in the year of our Lord 369. Hilary was called by several Fathers and Councils, an illustrious Doctor of the Church and was publicly honoured as such in certain dioceses. At length, at the petition of the Council of Bordeaux, the Supreme Pontiff Blessed Pius IX Pius, after having consulted the Congregation of Sacred Rites, declared him to have been justly called, and to be in effect, a Doctor of the universal Church and ordered that on his Feast all should recite the Mass and Office Of Doctors.
Dom Prosper Gueranger:
After having consecrated the joyous Octave of the Epiphany to the glory of the Emmanuel who was manifested to the Earth, the Church — incessantly occupied with the Divine Child and His august Mother during the whole time from Christmas Day to that on which Mary will bring Jesus to the Temple, there to be offered to God as the law prescribes — the Church, we say, has on her Calendar of this portion of the year the names of many glorious Saints who shine like so many stars on the path which leads us from the joys of the Nativity of our Lord to the sacred mystery of our Lady’s Purification. And firstly, there comes before us, on the very morrow of the day consecrated to the Baptism of Jesus, the faithful and courageous Hilary — the pride of the Churches of Gaul and the worthy associate of Athanasius and Eusebius of Vercelli in the battle fought for the Divinity of our Emmanuel.
Scarcely were the cruel persecutions of paganism over when there commenced the fierce contest with Arianism which had sworn to deprive of the glory and honours of His divinity that Jesus, who had conquered, by His Martyrs, over the violence and craft of the Roman Emperors. The Church had won her liberty by shedding her blood, and it was not likely that she would be less courageous on the new battlefield into which she was driven. Many were the Martyrs that were put to death by her new enemies — Christian, though heretical, Princes —it was for the Divinity of that Lord who had mercifully appeared on the Earth in the weakness of human flesh that they shed their blood. Side by side with these, there stood those holy and illustrious Doctors who, with the martyr-spirit within them, defended by their learning and eloquence the Nicene Faith which was the Faith of the Apostles. In the foremost rank of these latter we behold the Saint of today, covered with the rich laurels of his brave confessorship, Hilary — who, as Saint Jerome says of him, was brought up in the pompous school of Gaul, yet had culled the flowers of Grecian science and became the Rhone of Latin eloquence. Saint Augustine calls him the illustrious Doctor of the Churches.
Though gifted with the most extraordinary talents and one of the most learned men of the age, yet Saint Hilary’s greatest glory is his intense love for the Incarnate Word, and his zeal for the Liberty of the Church. His great soul thirsted after martyrdom and, by the unflinching love of truth which such a spirit gave him, he was the brave champion of the Church in that trying period when Faith, that had stood the brunt of persecution, seemed to be on the point of being betrayed by the craft of Princes, and the cowardice of temporising and un-orthodox Pastors.
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Glorious Hilary, you well deserved that your Church of Poitiers should, of old, address to you the magnificent praise given by the Roman Church to your illustrious disciple Saint Martin: “O blessed Pontiff who with his whole heart loved Christ our *' King and feared not the majesty of emperors! O most holy soul which, though not taken away by the sword of the persecutor, yet lost not the palm of martyrdom!” If the Palm of a Martyr is not in your, yet you had a Martyr’s spirit, and well might we add to your other titles of Confessor, Bishop and Doctor, the glorious one of Martyr, just as our holy Mother the Church has conferred it on your fellow-combatant Eusebius who was but Martyr in heart like yourself. Yes, your glory is great, but it is all due to you for your courage in confessing the Divinity of that Incarnate Word whose birth and infancy we are now celebrating. You had to stand before a Herod, as had the Magi, and, like them, you feared not: and when the Caesar of those times banished you to a foreign land, your soul found comfort in the thought that the infant Jesus too was exiled into Egypt. Oh that we could imitate you in the application of these Mysteries to ourselves!
Now that you are in Heaven, pray for our Churches that they may be firm in the Faith and may study to know and love Jesus, our Emmanuel. Pray for your Church of Poitiers which still loves you with the reverence and affection of a child, but since the ardour of your zeal embraced all the world, pray also for all the world. Pray that God may bless His Church with Bishops powerful in word and work, profound in sacred science, faithful in the guardianship of that which is entrusted to them and unswerving defenders of Ecclesiastical Liberty.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Nola in Campania, the birthday of St. Felix, priest, who (as is related by bishop St. Paulinus), after being subjected to torments by the persecutors, was cast into prison and extended, bound hand and foot, on (snail) shells and broken earthenware. In the night, however, his bonds were loosened and he was delivered by an angel. The persecution over, he brought many to the faith of Christ by his exemplary life and teaching and, renowned for miracles, rested in peace.
In Judaea, St. Malachi, prophet.
On Mount Sinai, thirty-eight holy monks, killed by the Saracens for the faith of Christ.
In the district of Raithy in Egypt forty-three holy monks, who were put to death by the Blemmians for the Christian religion.
At Milan, St. Datius, bishop and confessor, mentioned by Pope St. Gregory.
In Africa, St. Euphrasius, bishop.
In Syria, in the time of the emperor Valens, St. Julian Sabas the Elder who miraculously restored at Antioch the Catholic faith which was almost destroyed in that city.
At Neocaesarea in Pontus, St. Macrina, a disciple of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, and grandmother of St. Basil, who she brought up in the Christian faith.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
