Hilary of Arles

Hilary was born about 403 into a wealthy Gallo-Roman family and was headed for a career in public life. His kinsman Honoratus, who had founded the monastery on the island of Lérins, kept after him to give it up. Hilary resisted, then gave in, sold his property, and followed him to the island. When Honoratus was made bishop of Arles he took Hilary with him, and when Honoratus died in 430 the people of Arles elected Hilary — he was about twenty-nine. The story is that he had already gone back to Lérins and had to be brought out. He kept the monastery's habits in the bishop's house. He wore a rough tunic, worked with his hands, ate almost nothing, slept little, and refused to ride: he walked everywhere in his province, including long journeys in winter. He sold church plate and even the sacred vessels to ransom captives. He preached constantly and, according to his biographer, adjusted his level to whoever was in front of him — plain for the crowd, learned when the learned were present. As metropolitan of Arles he presided over councils in Gaul, and he pressed his authority hard. In 444 he deposed Celidonius, bishop of Besançon, on the grounds that Celidonius had married a widow before ordination and had served as a civil judge who passed capital sentences. He also consecrated a replacement for Bishop Projectus, who was seriously ill — and who then recovered. Both men appealed to Rome. Pope Leo the Great heard the cases, reinstated Celidonius, condemned the second consecration, and stripped Arles of its metropolitan rights over the Gallic provinces. He then obtained from the emperor Valentinian III a rescript in 445 declaring that nothing was to be done in Gaul against the authority of the Roman see. It is one of the sharpest early assertions of papal jurisdiction in the West, and it was made against Hilary. Hilary submitted, sent envoys, and was reconciled. When he died in 449, at about forty-six, worn out, Leo — who had beaten him — spoke of him as Hilary of holy memory. He left a life of Honoratus, preached as a sermon on the anniversary of his death, and a letter on the eclipse of 418. Sources: Honoratus of Marseilles, The Life of Hilary of Arles; Leo the Great, Letter 10; the rescript of Valentinian III (445); The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), s.v. "St. Hilary of Arles".