St Hilary of Poitiers: Life, Prayer, Quotes and Feast Day

St Hilary of Poitiers (died about 368) was the bishop of Poitiers in Gaul who stood against the Arian heresy in the West, was exiled to Phrygia by the Emperor Constantius for refusing to condemn St Athanasius, and wrote there the twelve books On the Trinity. St Jerome called him "the trumpet of the Latins against the Arians", later ages called him "the Athanasius of the West", and Pope Pius IX declared him a Doctor of the universal Church. In the calendar of 1962 his feast falls on 14 January; here is his life, his own prayers in full, his best-known sayings, and the prayer of his Mass.

Who was St Hilary of Poitiers?

Hilary was born at Poitiers, Butler says, of a family illustrious in Gaul (the Breviary says only that he was born in Aquitaine, of a noble family), and was brought up a pagan. He tells us himself, at the opening of his work On the Trinity, how he came to the faith, and Butler summarizes the steps. Reason told him that man, a free and moral being, is placed in this world to practise virtue, which must be rewarded after this life; he set himself to learn what God is, and soon saw the absurdity of many gods: there can be only one God, eternal, unchangeable, almighty, the first cause of all things.

Then he came upon the Scriptures. He was struck by the name God gives Himself to Moses, "I am who am", and by the prophets' language on His sovereignty; the New Testament completed his search, and from the first chapter of St John he learned that the Word, God the Son, is coeternal and consubstantial with the Father. He was baptized, already a grown man.

He was married before his conversion, and Butler records that his wife and their daughter, Apra, were still living when he was chosen bishop of Poitiers, about the year 350. The lessons of his feast in the Breviary say that even in marriage he lived almost the life of a monk. He tried to escape the episcopate, and his humility only made the people more determined.

The Athanasius of the West

These were the years when the Arian heresy, which denied that the Son is God equal to the Father, had the favour of the Emperor Constantius. In 355 the Emperor and a synod at Milan required all bishops to sign the condemnation of St Athanasius, the great defender of the Council of Nicaea; those who refused were banished. Hilary wrote to the Emperor pleading for the peace of the Church and broke communion with the three Arian bishops of the West, Ursacius, Valens and Saturninus.

Saturninus, Bishop of Arles, had his revenge. After a synod held at Béziers in 356, Hilary was sent into exile in Phrygia, in Asia Minor. He went, Butler says, "as cheerfully as another would take a pleasure trip". The Breviary adds that in Phrygia he raised a dead man to life. He used his exile, which lasted some three or four years, to write his great works, above all the twelve books On the Trinity against the Arians. Because he did in the West what Athanasius did in the East, and suffered for the same faith, he has been called "the Athanasius of the West" and "the hammer of the Arians". The doctrine he defended is the one we profess in the Nicene Creed.

In 359 the Emperor gathered a council at Seleucia in Isauria to undo the work of Nicaea; Hilary was summoned, and he boldly defended the Nicene faith. He went on to Constantinople and asked the Emperor for a public disputation with Saturninus, the author of his banishment. The Arians, dreading the encounter, persuaded Constantius to send this troublemaker back to Gaul, and in 360 he returned home.

St Hilary and St Martin of Tours

At Poitiers he was received with great joy, and there his old disciple St Martin soon rejoined him, and founded a monastery at Ligugé, near Poitiers. "Martin," the Breviary says, "made such progress under this master as his holiness afterwards showed." The future bishop of Tours thus learned the faith of Nicaea from Hilary; his intercession is sought in the novena to St Martin of Tours.

A synod of Gaul, called at Hilary's instance, condemned the Arian formula of the Council of Rimini of 359, and Saturninus was deposed. The death of Constantius in 361 ended the persecution. Hilary, "by nature the gentlest of men", Butler says, then wrote a fierce invective against the late Emperor. In 364 he went to Milan to confront the Arian bishop Auxentius, and forced him in a public disputation to confess Christ true God, of one substance with the Father, though Hilary saw through his hypocrisy.

How did St Hilary die?

He died at Poitiers, in peace. Neither the year nor the day is certain: Butler gives "probably the year 368"; the lessons of the Breviary say he passed to heaven on the Ides of January, that is 13 January, in 369. The Roman Martyrology names him on 14 January.

Where are the remains of St Hilary of Poitiers?

He was buried at Poitiers, in the church now called Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand. The history of his body is uncertain: the church was sacked by the Huguenots during the Wars of Religion, the Church of Le Puy-en-Velay long claimed to possess his relics, and the relics venerated as his today are kept in the crypt of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand.

St Hilary's prayers

Hilary is one of the great masters of prayer among the Fathers, and On the Trinity opens and closes with a prayer to the Father. These are the two passages people mean when they ask for "the prayer of St Hilary". We give them in the classic English translation of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.

His prayer before study and teaching (On the Trinity, I, 37-38)

I know, O Lord God Almighty, that I owe Thee, as the chief duty of my life, the devotion of all my words and thoughts to Thyself. The gift of speech which Thou hast bestowed can bring me no higher reward than the opportunity of service in preaching Thee and displaying Thee as Thou art, as Father and Father of God the Only-begotten, to the world in its blindness and the heretic in his rebellion. But this is the mere expression of my own desire; I must pray also for the gift of Thy help and compassion, that the breath of Thy Spirit may fill the sails of faith and confession which I have spread, and a favouring wind be sent to forward me on my voyage of instruction. [...]

And therefore we look to Thy support for the first trembling steps of this undertaking, to Thy aid that it may gain strength and prosper. We look to Thee to give us the fellowship of that Spirit Who guided the Prophets and the Apostles, that we may take their words in the sense in which they spoke and assign its right shade of meaning to every utterance. [...] Grant us, therefore, precision of language, soundness of argument, grace of style, loyalty to truth. Enable us to utter the things that we believe, that so we may confess, as Prophets and Apostles have taught us, Thee, One God our Father, and One Lord Jesus Christ [...].

(The passage is shortened; the cuts are marked [...].) Students, catechists and preachers have every reason to make it theirs.

His prayer for perseverance in the faith (On the Trinity, XII, 57)

Keep, I pray Thee, this my pious faith undefiled, and even till my spirit departs, grant that this may be the utterance of my convictions: so that I may ever hold fast that which I professed in the creed of my regeneration, when I was baptized in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let me, in short, adore Thee our Father, and Thy Son together with Thee; let me win the favour of Thy Holy Spirit, Who is from Thee, through Thy Only-begotten. For I have a convincing Witness to my faith, Who says, Father, all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, even my Lord Jesus Christ, abiding in Thee, and from Thee, and with Thee, for ever God: Who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.

It is the prayer of a man who had suffered exile for the Creed, asking only to die in the faith of his baptism. Our page on the Holy Trinity sets out the doctrine he spent his life defending.

St Hilary of Poitiers quotes

Some of the most quoted words come from him, and some about him:

• "I know, O Lord God Almighty, that I owe Thee, as the chief duty of my life, the devotion of all my words and thoughts to Thyself" (On the Trinity, I, 37).
• "Keep, I pray Thee, this my pious faith undefiled" (On the Trinity, XII, 57).
• St Jerome on Hilary: "the trumpet of the Latins against the Arians"; and, writing to Laeta on the education of her daughter, "let her run through the books of Hilary without stumbling", that is, they may be read without fear of error. Jerome is quoted to that effect in the lessons of Hilary's feast. Our page on St Jerome tells the life of that demanding judge.
• St Augustine called him "the illustrious doctor of the churches".

The Doctor of the Church and the hymns

Many Fathers and councils had called Hilary an eminent doctor of the Church, and some dioceses honoured him as such. At the request of a synod of Bordeaux, Pope Pius IX, in 1851, declared and confirmed him a Doctor of the universal Church, and ordered the Mass and Office of Doctors to be said on his feast; the lessons of the Breviary record it.

Butler also notes that the earliest Latin hymn-writing is associated with Hilary's name: a manuscript found at Arezzo in 1887 preserved some of his hymns, along with a work long thought lost. In England his name lives on in an unexpected place: a term of the law courts and a university term are named from his feast.

The prayer of St Hilary's feast (Missal of 1962)

His Mass is from the Common of Doctors, In medio Ecclesiae, with the Epistle "Preach the word" (2 Timothy iv. 1-8) and the Gospel "You are the salt of the earth" (St Matthew v. 13-19).

Collect, 14 January

Deus, qui populo tuo aeternae salutis beatum Hilarium ministrum tribuisti: praesta, quaesumus; ut, quem Doctorem vitae habuimus in terris, intercessorem habere mereamur in caelis. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, Filium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

O God, who didst give blessed Hilary to Thy people as a minister of eternal salvation: grant, we beseech Thee, that we who had him as a teacher of life on earth may deserve to have him as our intercessor in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

This Collect of the Doctors is the prayer to St Hilary that the Church herself puts on our lips.

When is the feast day of St Hilary of Poitiers?

In the calendar of 1962 the feast of St Hilary of Poitiers falls on 14 January, a feast of the third class in white vestments, with a commemoration of St Felix, priest and martyr. The calendar of 1969 moved it to 13 January. You will find it in our traditional Catholic calendar of 1962, and his place among the saints in our guide to the Catholic saints.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was St Hilary of Poitiers?

A convert from paganism who became bishop of Poitiers about 350, was exiled to Phrygia for refusing to condemn St Athanasius, wrote the twelve books On the Trinity against the Arians, taught St Martin of Tours, and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1851.

Why is St Hilary called the Athanasius of the West?

Because he defended the faith of the Council of Nicaea in the Latin West, and suffered exile for it, as St Athanasius did in the East.

Was St Hilary of Poitiers married?

Yes. He was married before his conversion, and his wife and their daughter Apra were still living when he became bishop.

What is St Hilary of Poitiers known for?

For his defence of the divinity of Christ against the Arians, for his treatise On the Trinity, for his prayers, for being the master of St Martin of Tours, and for his place among the first Latin hymn-writers.

When did St Hilary of Poitiers become a Doctor of the Church?

In 1851, when Pope Pius IX declared and confirmed him a Doctor of the universal Church, at the request of a synod of Bordeaux.

When did St Hilary die?

At Poitiers, probably in 368 according to Butler; the Breviary gives 13 January 369. Neither the year nor the day is certain.

The Iter Fidei app carries the Roman Missal of 1962, the Breviary with the lessons of St Hilary and the traditional calendar, in Latin and English. Join early access here.

Sources. Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, 14 January (St Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church). Roman Breviary (edition before 1960), 14 January, lessons of the second nocturn (in the Breviary of 1962 this third-class feast has a single, contracted lesson). Roman Missal (1962), Proper of Saints, 14 January, and Common of Doctors. St Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, I, 37-38 and XII, 57 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, vol. IX). Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version, 2 Timothy iv. 1-8; St Matthew v. 13-19.