Hilary of Poitiers
Bishop of Poitiers (c. 310 – c. 367)
Hilary of Poitiers or St Hilarius (Latin: Hilarius Pictaviensis; c. 310 – c. 367) was Bishop of Poitiers and a Doctor of the Church. He was sometimes referred to as the "Hammer of the Arians" (Malleus Arianorum) and the "Athanasius of the West". His name comes from the Latin word for happy or cheerful. Prior to his conversion to Christianity, Hilary married someone, and then fathered Abra of Poitiers, a nun and saint who became known for her charity.
Early life
Hilary was born at Poitiers either at the end of the 3rd or beginning of the 4th century AD. His parents were pagans of distinction. He received a good education, which included a high level of Greek. He studied, later on, the Old and New Testament writings, with the result that he abandoned his Neoplatonism for Nicene Christianity, and with his wife and his daughter, traditionally known as Saint Abra of Poitiers, were baptized and received into the Church.
Arianism was becoming popular among Christians in this era and this theological position was refuted by the bishops at the Council of Nicaea, under the sponsorship of the emperor Constantine the Great. There had been rigorous debates—even some violent disputes—between Trinitarians and Arians, leading up to the Council.
In 353, the Trinitarian Christians of Arles elected Hilary as bishop as the existing bishop, Saturninus of Arles, was an Arian.
“Hilary of Poitiers” enters the record as bishop of Poitiers (c. 310 – c. 367). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Hilary, Poitiers and Bishop can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hilary of Poitiers” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.