Hilary, St, Bishop of Poitiers, although by no means among the most voluminous of the Latin Fathers, yet, from the nature of the subjects on which he wrote, chiefly connected with the Arian controversy, occupies an important place in the patristic literature of the Western Church. He was born of pagan parents at Limonum (Poitiers) in the early part of the 4th century. His conversion to Christianity was mainly the result of his own study of the prophecies, and did not take place till he was advanced in life. About the year 350 he was elected bishop of his native city, and immediately rose to the first place in the animated contest of parties in the Arian controversy. Having provoked the displeasure of the court party, he was imprisoned, and sent into exile in Phrygia; but he appears again in the Council of Seleucia in 359, and soon afterwards was permitted to resume possession of his see, where he died in 367. The church holds his day on the 13th January. His most important work is that on the Trinity, but his three addresses to the Emperor Constantius, by their vehemence, and by the boldness of their language, have most attracted the notice of critics. Hilary's theological writings are especially valuable for the history of the Arian party, and particularly for the doctrinal variations of that sect, and the successive phases through which it passed between the Council of Nice and the first Council of Constantinople. He is often styled 'Malleus Arianorum,' and the 'Athanasius of the West,' and was formally recognised as 'universæ ecclesiæ doctor' by Pius IX. in 1851. The most celebrated of the hymns attributed to him is the 'Beata nobis gaudia Anni redxit orbita,' which was early inserted in western liturgies. The English Hilary term begins on the 11th and ends on 31st January.
See two German Lives by Reinkens (1864) and Baltzer (1881); also J. G. Cazenove's Saint Hilary of Poitiers and Saint Martin of Tours in the series of 'Fathers for English Readers' (1883). The best edition of the works of St Hilary is that of the Benedictine Dom. Coutant (Paris, 1693; new ed. 1844-45).