St. Hilary of Poitiers

Who they were

Hilary was a pagan aristocrat of Gaul, a philosopher hunting the question of what a human life is for, and he found his answer by reading. He worked through the Scriptures until the prologue of John's Gospel ended the search, which puts him with St. Justin Martyr and St. Augustine of Hippo among the great converts by book.

Made bishop of Poitiers by acclamation around 350, married and with a daughter, he became the West's leading defender of Nicaea against Arianism, for which Constantius exiled him to Phrygia. Undismayed, Hilary used the exile to learn the Greek theological tradition and wrote On the Trinity, the work that earned him the name Athanasius of the West. His opponents eventually begged the emperor to send him home, where he mentored a young former soldier named St. Martin of Tours. Among his surviving works is a letter of tender spiritual counsel to his daughter Abra, which is a rare thing to have from a Doctor of the Church. He was named one in 1851, and the Hilary term of the English courts and of Oxford still opens on his feast.

Why people turn to St. Hilary of Poitiers

Readers arguing their way in. Fathers of daughters, who get a Doctor of the Church who wrote one a letter. And academics holding an unfashionable position that happens to be true, with St. Athanasius, whose western twin he is.

How to ask their intercession

With the book open, which was his method. Fathers can do the other thing he did and write the letter.