The Latin Life of *Hilary of Arles (Hilary/Hilarius, bishop of Arles, ob. 449, S00435) is written in southern Gaul in the late 5th century. Overview entry.
E06072
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives
Life of Saint Hilary, Bishop of Arles (Vita sancti Hilarii episcopi Arelatensis, BHL 3882, CPL 506)
Summary:
(1-2.) The author declares his incapacity for writing the Life of Hilary. After briefly alluding to Hilary's early life he declares that he will start with the true beginning of his life, his conversion. (3-6.) The young Hilary is visited by his relative, *Honoratus (founder of Lérins and bishop of Arles, S00438), who encourages him to convert to a religious life. Hilary hesitates for a long time but eventually accepts Honoratus' arguments. The author gives lengthy discourses in direct speech by Honoratus and Hilary.
(7.) Hilary becomes a monk at Lérins. (8.) His love of Honoratus causes him to move to Arles when Honoratus becomes bishop, but he later returns to Lérins. (9.) When Honoratus is dying, he summons Hilary to Arles and at the moment of death points to him as his successor. Hilary attempts to flee, but is brought back by a group of soldiers and citizens led by the military commander Cassius. He still refuses to accept the office of bishop unless there is a sign from God. Thereupon, a dove appears and lands on his head. (10.) Hilary is brought into the city and consecrated as bishop. He immediately establishes a monastic community in Arles.
(11.) Hilary's holiness, asceticism and charity. (12.) When Hilary learns that Caprasius, the Lérins monk and friend of Honoratus, is dying, he travels to Lérins and attends his deathbed alongside the abbot, Faustus, and the bishops Theodorus [of Fréjus] and Maximus [of Riez]. Hilary seats Faustus between the two bishops, foreseeing that he would become a bishop. (13.) He publicly rebukes a Praetorian Prefect who ignores his admonitions. (14-15.) Hilary's charity and hospitality. His brilliance as a preacher. His literary works: the Life of Honoratus, sermons, letters, poetry, and an exposition of the Creed. The author quotes praise of Hilary's eloquence by Eucherius of Lyon (from his Praise of the Desert) and Auxiliaris, 'an author of Roman eloquence'. How Hilary read or was read to constantly, even when he was working or eating. The author quotes a description of this from a poem in praise of Hilary by the poet Edesius. How Hilary was willing to work with his hands. How he sometimes rose in the middle of the night and walked thirty miles to preach to distant congregations. (16-17.) The emotions evoked in the congregation by Hilary's preaching. How he miraculously healed a blind woman. How he drove out demons. (18.) When some members of the congregation leave a service before the end, a miraculous fire from heaven burns part of the city. (19.) How Hilary constantly employed his hands in activities such as weaving, and his mind on prayer and recollection of the scriptures. (20.) How he converted a woman from Arianism. How he healed Cyrillus, a deacon who was engaged in removing stone from the theatre at Arles to reuse in church buildings and whose toes were crushed by a falling block of stone. In a dream, a figure appeared to Hilary and promised that Cyrillus would be healed if Hilary accepted a blow to his own foot. Hilary unhesitatingly stretched out his foot and received a blow that caused him agonising pain. When he woke, he found that Cyrillus' pain had departed at that moment.
(21.) Hilary often visited 'the holy Germanus' (sanctum Germanum – *Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, S00455), and co-operated with him to impose good conduct on bishops and clergy all over Gaul. They are informed that a bishop named Celidonius [of Besançon] is married to a woman who had been married before, and in his previous career as an official had sentenced people to death, both things inappropriate to a bishop. They convene a hearing where these things are confirmed by witnesses; they therefore instruct Celidonius to resign his office, but instead he goes to Rome and complains that he has been condemned unjustly. On learning of this, Hilary immediately travels to Rome on foot in the middle of winter. (22.) After visiting the shrines of the apostles and martyrs, he humbly requests that Pope Leo should uphold his sentence. He holds his own against the many powerful men who oppose him, but realising that he cannot win over his opponents by reason, he departs. After returning to Arles, he sends the presbyter Ravennius, later his successor as bishop, and two bishops, Nectarius and Constantius, to intercede with the pope. The author quotes from a letter to Hilary from Auxiliaris, 'then prefect' [presumably Prefect of the City], who says he has interceded with the pope on Hilary's behalf. (23.) Hilary continues to devote himself to his work as bishop. The author quotes another passage of verse by the poet Edesius in praise of Hilary.
(24.) Hilary dies at the age of forty-eight, his health undermined by his mortifications and constant activity. (25.) Before his death, Hilary has a vision of himself clothed in the robe of the high priest Aaron [Exodus 39]. He sees Ravennius being consecrated, and knows that he is about to die. (26.) The author gives a lengthy address by Hilary to his congregation, in which he says that he has fulfilled his duties as bishop and warns them of the many snares of the devil. He predicts that after his death the city will experience a time of trial. (27.) Hilary tells his congregation that his soul will be freed from his body at the eleventh hour. He dies rejoicing. (28-29.) Universal grief in the city at Hilary's death. Hilary's funeral takes place in the churches in Arles dedicated to *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030) and *Genesius (martyr of Arles, S00263). (For detailed discussion of Hilary's funeral, see E08355.)
(30.) Hilary lives on in his successors and the bishops he ordained. (31.) Hilary constantly hears the prayers of the people and intercedes for them with God. (32-33.) The author makes a final address to Hilary, praising his virtues, asking to be forgiven for his presumption in writing his life, and asking Hilary to intercede for him with Christ.
Text: Cavallin 1952.
Summary: David Lambert.
Service for the saint
Chant and religious singing
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Cult building - unspecified
Non Liturgical ActivitySaint as patron - of a community
Saint as patron - of an individual
Visiting graves and shrines
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Miracle after death
Miracles experienced by the saint
Healing diseases and disabilities
Exorcism
Punishing miracle
Miraculous appointment to office
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Revelation of hidden knowledge (past, present and future)
RelicsBodily relic - entire body
Contact relic - saint’s possession and clothes
Contact relic - cloth
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Source
Authorship and dateIn the manuscripts, the Life of Hilary is either anonymous or attributed to an otherwise unknown author named Reverentius (explained by Cavallin 1952, 35, as a garbled reference to Hilary's successor Ravennius). In a passage interpolated into Gennadius of Marseille's catalogue of Christian authors and their works, De viris illustribus, it is attributed to Honoratus, bishop of Marseille (PCBE 4, 'Honoratus 3'), whose precise dates are unknown but who was in office in the time of Pope Gelasius (492-496). The authorship of the entry (De viris illustribus 100), probably dating from the early 6th century, is unknown, but it appears to be well-informed and is generally accepted as reliable. The attribution is compatible with what the author says about himself at various points in the Life: he was a bishop (§ 33), who had been present at Hilary's funeral (§ 29), and who was close enough to Hilary to describe him (§ 2) as his 'personal father' (peculiaris pater). If Honoratus had been an adolescent or young man in the 440s, he would have quite old, but not implausibly so, when he is directly attested in the 490s.
The Life was written after the death of Pope Leo I in 461 (§ 22). If, as its conclusion (§ 33) implies, Honoratus of Marseille was already a bishop, it must have been written after the mid 470s, when his predecessor Graecus is last attested. It is likely that the presbyter Basilius, who rips up the covering on Hilary's body to give away as relics and is said 'now' to be a bishop (see E08355), is the Basilius attested as bishop of Aix-en-Provence in the 470s (PCBE 4, 'Basilius 1'), but we only have a couple of isolated references to him and do not know the exact dates of his tenure. More debatable inferences have been made from aspects of the text: that its treatment of the issue of divine grace dates it to after the controversy over grace which took place in the Gallic church in the 470s (the 'Lucidus affair', see Mathisen 1989, 244-68), and that the dying Hilary's prediction that Arles will suffer a time of trial in the near future (§ 26) refers to the occupation of the city by the Visigoths in 477 (both argued by Cavallin 1952, 37-39, followed by Jacob 1995, 21-22). The evidence seems to converge on a terminus post quem of the mid to late 470s; the boundary in the opposite direction is less clear, but if both Honoratus of Marseille and Basilius of Aix were alive it can hardly have later than the beginning of the 6th century (we do not know even approximately when Honoratus died, since no other bishop of Marseille is attested until the second half of the 6th century).
For further discussion, see Cavallin 1952, 35-40; Jacob 1995, 11-19.
Manuscripts and editions
There are three extant medieval manuscripts of the Life of Hilary (a contrast with the much larger number of manuscripts of the Sermon on the Life of Honoratus): Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Lat. 5295 (11th c.), originally from the cathedral in Arles (on this manuscript see Cavallin 1952, 7-13, and the Bibliothèque nationale website: https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc64231h); Vatican, Reg. lat. 645 (12th c.); and Grenoble, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 1171 (13th c.). The editio princeps of the Life was based on a manuscript from Lérins which is now lost; its date and precise characteristics are unknown. On the textual history of the Life, see Cavallin 1952, 35, 40-46; briefly summarised by Jacob 1995, 24-6.
The editio princeps of the Life, based on the lost Lérins manuscript, appeared in 1613 in the collection of texts about Lérins compiled by Vincentius Barralis, a monk at the monastery. The Acta Sanctorum edition appeared in 1680, based on a collation of Barralis' edition with the Vatican manuscript. The conflict between Hilary and Pope Leo I caused early modern editors of Leo's works such as Pasquier Quesnel (1675) and the Ballerini brothers (1756) to edit the Life as a supplement to their editions of Leo; the Ballerini edition was reprinted by Migne in Patrologia Latina. A modern critical edition was published by Samuel Cavallin in 1952.
Discussion
Hilary of Arles (PCBE 4, 'Hilarius 3') was bishop of the city for around twenty years (429/30-449), and it is evident from many sources independent of the Life that he was a major (though controversial) figure in the Gallic church. The Life of Hilary was written some decades after his death, and though the author claims to have known him, it lacks the personal immediacy of Hilary's portrayal of Honoratus in the Sermon on the Life of Honoratus (E06026), the text that served as its primary model.The account of Hilary's life up to the death of Honoratus (§§ 2-9) is entirely dependent on Hilary's own account in the Sermon on the Life of Honoratus, plus the brief references to him in Eucherius' Praise of the Desert (a work on monasticism written at Lérins, c. 428/9). It is with the account of Hilary's accession as bishop (§§ 9-10), in 429 or 430, that the Life becomes an original source. The author was evidently concerned to demonstrate Hilary's legitimacy (when he became bishop of Arles Hilary was below the canonical minimum age and had held no previous clerical office – the only basis for his accession seems to have been that he was Honoratus' protégé): reluctant to become bishop to the extent that he attempts to flee and has to be brought back by force, but approved for the office by Honoratus, by the people of Arles, and – as shown by a miraculous sign – by God himself.
The longest section of the Life (§§ 11-20) consists of a series of anecdotes illustrating Hilary's personal qualities, pastoral achievements, and miracle-working. These do not seem to be given in any kind of chronological order and are mostly undatable (Hilary's visit to the dying Caprasius at Lérins can be dated to the mid 430s from of our knowledge of the biographies of the individuals mentioned). Hilary is credited with a number of miracles, which show that his biographer viewed miracles as a necessary attribute of sanctity, as was indeed the norm by the time the Life was written, but differs from the opinion expressed by Hilary himself in the Sermon on the Life of Honoratus (see E06098).
The author then comes (§§ 21-2) to the most difficult issue for him to deal with, Hilary's condemnation by Pope Leo I (for a detailed narrative of the clash between Leo and Hilary, see Mathisen 1989, 141-172; cf. also Mathisen 1979, Heinzelmann 1992, Wessel 2008, 57ff.). This originated from Hilary's attempts, not mentioned in the Life up to this point but well-documented elsewhere, to extend the power of the see of Arles and obtain for it a primacy in the Gallic church comparable to its political status as the seat of the Praetorian Prefect. He seems to have achieved success in this for much of his episcopate, taking a key role in Gallic church councils, and asserting himself in episcopal appointments and church discipline in sees sometimes far from Arles (such as Besançon, the see of his nemesis Celidonius). In 444/5, however, it rebounded on him: two bishops deposed by Hilary, Celidonius and Proiectus (the latter not mentioned in the Life), appealed to the pope. Hilary travelled to Rome to argue his case in person but completely failed to conciliate Leo, who not only reinstated the deposed bishops but wrote to the Gallic bishops condemning Hilary's actions and banning him from attempting to exercise influence outside his own see (Leo, Letter 10), backing this up with a rescript to the same effect from the emperor (Theodosian Code, Nov. Val. 17). Hilary was not deposed or excommunicated, and thus remained in good standing as bishop of Arles, but had suffered a severe defeat in an area that had clearly been one of his main priorities. This was a delicate area for Hilary's biographer: the fact that Hilary's later years had been clouded by such a a defeat, and the very fact that he had come into conflict with the pope, were hard to fit into a celebratory Life. The author needed to justify Hilary's actions, but without openly criticising Leo. Unsurprisingly, his account, while – as far as we can tell, given the limited evidence – it does not contain any direct falsehoods, is very selective: he relates the condemnation of Celidonius entirely from Hilary's point of view, emphasises the involvement in the case of the revered figure of Germanus of Auxerre (for which he is the only source), and omits the fact that there were other complaints against Hilary. He depicts Hilary, during his stay in Rome, as being the victim of behind the scenes machinations by unnamed powerful figures (potentes – § 22), and ultimately, while acknowledging that Hilary failed to prevail against his opponents, does not say explicitly that he was condemned.
As with the Sermon on the Life of Honoratus (see E06026 and E00727), and no doubt influenced by it, the Life of Hilary culminates in a lengthy account (§§ 24-29) of its subject's death (5 May 449) and funeral. Apart from the resemblances between the accounts of the two funerals (see E08355), both feature an address in direct speech from the dying man. The Life of Hilary additionally describes a vision in which Hilary sees himself clothed in the priestly vestments of Aaron (Exodus 39) and has a revelation of his own imminent death. The account of his funeral emphasises the love of the people for Hilary and their desperation to obtain relics, and the conclusion to the Life (§§ 31-3) goes on to portray him as a patron and intercessor who ensures that people's prayers are answered, though the author claims (§ 31) that Hilary had obtained through prayer that miracles (evidently posthumous ones, since the Life records several during his lifetime) should not reveal his power (virtutem ne signa proderent, oratio impetravit). This echoes a claim made by Hilary himself about Honoratus (E06098), but is obviously also a tacit admission that he was lacking in one of the main criteria for the rise of a saint's cult.
It is clear that the author of the Life of Hilary hoped that it would help to establish Hilary as an episcopal saint, but his efforts do not seem to have borne fruit. His feast day appears in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (E04804), but there is no other evidence that Hilary received cult during the remainder of late antiquity or the early middle ages, in spite of the fact that Arles is relatively well-documented during this period.
Bibliography
Editions:Cavallin, S., Vitae sanctorum Honorati et Hilarii episcoporum Arelatensium (Lund, 1952), 81-109.
Migne, J.-P., Patrologia Latina 50 (Paris, 1846), 1219-1246. Reprint of Ballerini edition.
Ballerini, P. and G., Sancti Leonis Magni opera, vol. 2 (Venice, 1756), 317-342.
Salinas, J., SS. Prosperi Aquitani et Honorati Massiliensis opera (Rome, 1732), 247-311.
Henschenius, G., Acta Sanctorum, Mai. II (Antwerp, 1680), 25-34.
Quesnel, P., Sancti Leonis Magni papae I opera, vol. 1 (Paris, 1675), 731-751.
Barralis, V., Chronologia Sanctorum & aliorum virorum Illustrium ac Abbatium Sacrae Insulae Lerinensis (Lyon, 1613), vol. 1, 103-117. Editio princeps.
Translations:
Jacob, P.-A., La Vie d'Hilaire d'Arles (Sources Chrétiennes 404; Paris, 1995). Cavallin's text with annotated French translation.
Clay, J.-H., "The Life of Saint Hilary of Arles." English translation, available online: https://www.academia.edu/12265722/The_Life_of_Saint_Hilary_of_Arles
Further reading:
Heinzelmann, M., "The 'affair' of Hilary of Arles (445) and Gallo-Roman identity in the fifth century," in: J. Drinkwater and H. Elton (eds.), Fifth-Century Gaul: A Crisis of Identity? (Cambridge, 1992), 239-251.
Mathisen, R.W., "Hilarius, Germanus and Lupus: The Aristocratic Background to the Chelidonius Affair," Phoenix 33:2 (1979), 160-169.
Mathisen, R.W., Ecclesiastical Factionalism and Religious Controversy in Fifth-Century Gaul (Washington DC, 1989).
Wessel, S., Leo the Great and the Spiritual Rebuilding of a Universal Rome (Leiden, 2008).
David Lambert
14/07/2023
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Stephanus | Certain | S00263 | Genesius, notary and martyr of Arles | Genesius | Certain | S00435 | Hilarius/Hilary, bishop of Arles, ob. 449 | Hilarius | Certain | S00438 | Honoratus, founder of Lérins and bishop of Arles, ob. 429/30 | Honoratus | Certain | S00455 | Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, ob. c. 448 | Germanus | Certain |
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