Hilary of Arles
Monk of Lérins made bishop of Arles at twenty-nine, whose conflict with Rome fixed the limits of metropolitan power.
- Late Antiquity
- France
- Feast day May 5
- 401 – 449
- Bishop
- Monk
Listen to the life 0:36
Formed at Lérins under his kinsman Honoratus, Hilary succeeded him in the see of Arles around 430, at twenty-nine. An uncompromising ascetic — he sold the sacred vessels to ransom captives and went on foot to visit the dioceses of his province — he extended his authority over neighbouring bishoprics to the point of deposing one of them. Leo the Great overruled him in 445 and withdrew his metropolitan rights: the affair is one of the first great markers of Roman authority over the Gallic episcopate. Hilary died at forty-eight.
