Hilary of Poitiers

St. Hilary of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church, was born at Poitiers about 315 of a noble pagan family and baptized in 345 when he was already married and had a daughter (Abra). It was a very troubled period for the Church and the Arian discords had made their way as far as Gaul. Jerome in 399 wrote on the results of the double synod of Seleucia - Rimini (359), ‘Ingemuit totus orbis et Arianum se esse miratus est’ (‘The whole world groaned and was thunderstruck at finding itself Arian’). The people and clergy of Poitiers unanimously chose Hilary for their bishop (before 355) and he was from that moment the leading figure in the struggle in the West against Arianism.

Patrick J. Hamell, Handbook of Patrology (Staten Island, NY: Alba House, 1968), 128.