Saint Hilary of Arles (400-449)
Image: Catholic Online
(EWTN) Most likely born in France, Hilary’s family were wealthy and he received a traditional aristocratic education in philosophy and rhetoric (wisdom, grammar and logic) which he expected to put into good use in his life.
One of Hilary’s relatives Honoratus Archbishop of Arles, founded Lernis Monastery near the French Riveria and given his life in service to the Church, he was very concerned for Hilary’s salvation, urging him with tears to abandon worldly pursuits for the sake of following Jesus Christ.
“On one side,” Hilary later recalled, “I saw the Lord calling me, on the other, the world offering me its seducing charms and pleasures. How often did I embrace and reject will and not will the same thing but in the end, Jesus Christ triumphed in me and three days after Honoratus had left me, the mercy of God solicited by his prayers, subdued my rebellious soul.”
Hillary returned to Honoratus, humbling himself as one of his disciples and embraced a life of prayer, abstinence of worldly pleasures and study of the Scriptures, he sold off his property and gave the proceeds to the poor, embracing the monastic life of the Lernis Monastery.
When Archbishop Honoratus died in 429, Hilary again attempted to leave Arles but the faithful of the city sent out a search party and brought him back so that he could be consecrated as Honoratus’ successor.
Though he was not yet 30 yrs old at the time, as the new Archbishop, he was well prepared by his years in a religious life and the time assisting Honoratus as one of his disciples.
As Archbishop, Hilary maintained the simplicity of a Monk, he owned few possessions, put the poor ahead of himself and continued to perform manual labor.
Known for his kindness and charity, Archbishop Hilary was also remembered for publicly rebuking a government official who brought shame on the Church — Hilary would also warn ‘lukewarm believers’ that they would “not so easily get out of Hell, if you are once unhappily fallen into its dungeons.”
Archbishop Hilary helped to establish Monasteries in his diocese and strengthened the discipline and orthodoxy (conforming to Christian faith) of the local Church through a series of Councils; Hilary sold off Church property in order to pay the ransoms of those who had been abducted–Its is said, that he worked many miracles during his lifetime.
On this date in the year 449 Archbishop Hilary of Arles died at the age of 49 of natural causes. Pope Leo I praised Hilary the Bishop of Arles in a letter to his successor honoring him as: “Hilary of Holy Memory.”
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