Hilary of Poiters (315 - 367 )

A highly cultured and educated french man born  to wealthy polytheistic  nobility.  Hilary’s early life was uneventful  he married, had children , and studied  on his own. Through his studies he came to believe in the practice of  good works, then monotheism. As he studied the Bible for the first time, he literally read himself   to faith and states he was converted by the end of the New Testament 

At the age of 35, Hillary was elected as the new bishop of Poitier.   He opposed the emperor’s attempt to control the Church, and was exiled; spending four years in the east. 

He became an opponent of Arian theology which held that Jesus was less than divine to this end he devoted his creative talents as a writer and a teacher.  He developed the use of hymns to teach doctrine and is sometimes regarded as the first Latin hymn writer,. He is said to have been by nature mild and affable. He introduced Eastern theology to the Western Church.  

The later years of Hilary's life were spent in comparative quiet.  He worked on his expositions of the Psalms, an allegorical exegesis of the Gospel of Matthew and his now lost translation of Origen's commentary on the Book of Job.  Toward the end of his time as Bishop and with the encouragement of his disciple Martin, the future bishop of Tours, he founded a monastery at Ligugé in his diocese. Hillary died in 368 A.D.

 "Little children follow and obey their father. They love their mother. They know nothing of covetousness, ill-will, bad temper, arrogance and lying. This state of mind opens the road to heaven. To imitate our Lord’s own humility, we must return to the simplicity of God’s little ones." Hilary of Poiters

compiled from several sources