Today is the feast day of St Hilary of Poitiers. Here are 10 things you might not know about him:
- His name comes from the Latin word for happy and cheerful.
- He was born in Poitiers around the end of the 3rd century AD. He was born into a noble family of pagans and received an excellent pagan education, including Greek to a high level.
- It was his knowledge of Greek which allowed him to study the Bible, and it was through his studies that he was converted to Christianity.
- Unlike most saints, he was married, and had a daughter, Abra. His wife and daughter were also converted and Abra went on to become a saint in her own right.
- In around 350 or 353, he was elected Bishop of Poitiers – a landslide victory, since he was very popular with the Christians there.
- He spent four years in exile in Phrygia. It’s not know for sure why that was, but it’s likely to have had something to do with the politics of religion at the time. Hilary was sometimes referred to as the "Hammer of the Arians", the Arians being a sect which didn’t believe in the divinity of Christ but were very powerful, so it was likely it had something to do with his opposition to them. Hilary also had it in for orthodox Christians and excommunicated some of them.
- During his exile, he studied the Arians in detail, which only made his opposition to them more effective once he returned home. He co-operated with Martin of Tours in combating Arianism and the founding of the monastery of Ligugé, 8 km south of Poitiers.
- Because he was a writer, his symbols are three books and a quill pen. His liturgical colour is White.
- He is the patron saint of lawyers and gives his name to the spring terms of the English and Irish Law Courts and Oxford and Dublin Universities. The Hilary term starts on or around 13 January, his feast day.
- According to Jerome, Hilary died in Poitiers in 367.
New Year New Reading Challenge?
I can help. Here are links to books which meet potential criteria:
A title with three words
- Death and Faxes
- Killing Me Softly
- Settling the Score
- Secrets and Skies
- Over the Rainbow
- Closing the Circle
A title with six words
A book with a number in the title
A book with a colour in the title
Short story collections/A book with a green cover
A book published in the last year/during lockdown
A book you can finish in a day/A book under 200 pages
A book featuring characters from a deck of cards
A Book set during Christmas
A book with a place in the title
A Debut novel
A book with a plant or flower on the cover/A book about siblings
A book with a female villain or criminal
Includes space travel
Features Royalty
Books featuring skiing or snowboarding
A book with the Olympic games in it
A book with a bird in the title
A book featuring a secret society
A book featuring time travel/alternative dimensions
Raiders Trilogy:
Books featuring superheroes
Books featuring ghosts
From an Indie Publisher/Self published/An author you've not read before/A female author/A genre you wouldn't normally read/A book outside your comfort zone/A book by an author with your initials and your initials are JH
All of them!
More details can be found here
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