Saint Hilary of Poitiers

But the misfortunes of the times came to disturb this filial devotion. The 5th century saw Gaul flooded by the military expeditions of the Vandals and Goths, who reduced the most flourishing cities to ashes and condemned the countryside to a long and ruinous sterility. Poitiers also fell into their hands; three times in that same century the city saw its walls overturned, its monuments torn down, and the church that protected the remains of Saint Hilary, reduced among the first to a state of complete ruin, buried under its rubble, along with a host of precious objects, the holy deposit that public piety had honored there for more than a hundred years. The impossibility of approaching this lost treasure brought pilgrimages to an end; it was forgotten to such a degree that after nearly an entire century during which the city was several times retaken and invaded, people became accustomed to seeing these ruins without interest, as they were not being rebuilt, and as continuous alarms did not even allow them to be examined.

However, an event occurred that, by strengthening the French monarchy in the hands of a powerful king, was to restore the sacred walls and revive the memory of the holy Confessor.

Clovi s, res Clovis First king of the Franks to convert to Catholicism. olved to drive Alari c from Alaric King of the Goths who conquered Touraine. Aquitaine and with him the Visigoths over whom the conqueror reigned, came to camp a few leagues from Poitiers and prepared, while observing the enemy army, to fight a decisive battle. In this circumstance, the vigilant Doctor seemed to come back to life to fight once more against the Arianism professed by the Visigoths, for in the middle of the night a globe of fire rose from the ruins of his church and went to extinguish itself seven leagues away above the tent of

Clovis. This prodigy, which manifested itself on the eve of a battle that was regarded as the final one, seemed a presage of victory; and, indeed, one would have said that Saint Hilary, the most illustrious enemy of the Arians of his time, continued to pursue them on a territory he had forbidden to them. Be that as it may, the event confirmed these hopes. The very next day, Alaric was defeated and killed by the husband of Saint C lotilde, and the plains of Vo plaines de Vouillé, ou Voulon Site of the decisive battle between Clovis and the Visigoths. uillé, or Voulon, buried the fortune of the Visigoths.

The monastery of Saint-Hilaire, which had risen near his tomb, had not been swept away in the loss of the church, or else it had risen from its very ruins and had not ceased to exist, although frequent vicissitudes had come to disturb its peace. At the time of the great event we have just recalled, Saint Fridolin was it s abbot and ha saint Fridolin Irish monk, abbot of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers, and founder of Säckingen. d contributed singularly by his care to the restoration of the monastic dwelling. But one happiness was still lacking: his ardent vows, which aspired to discover the sacred remains that he venerated in his heart, were not yet granted. The events of which he had just been a witness, and also no doubt that sort of intuition that God gives to the Saints of the great things He prepares for His glory, began to bring back his hopes, and he was conversing about them one night before the Lord when he received from Saint Hilary himself, in a vision, the precise indication of the place where his relics were buried, and of the one where he wished them to be kept in the future. Following this formal manifestation and the order to raise up the ruins of the holy place, Fridolin had gone, with the Bishop of Poitiers, A delphius, to solicit from Cl évêque de Poitiers Adelphius Bishop of Poitiers who accompanied Fridolin to Clovis. ovis an aid that the prince granted them. As a result of these royal generosities, which thus repaid the singular protection lent by the illustrious doctor to the first protector of the Church in France, one saw the new edifice rise rapidly and soon be embellished. However, this entirely princely enterprise was not only the work of royal munificence: this would not have been enough for such considerable expenses. Adelphius supplemented it with his own resources; and, when the temple was completed, they proceeded to a solemn Translation, which took place on the day indicated in advance with an immense gathering of clergy and people. The bishop, having accomplished the holy Sacrifice, entered with Saint Fridolin into the crypt finally rediscovered where the venerated body of the holy Pontiff had for so long been hidden from all eyes. This crypt had been reformed before the ceremony: at the moment it was opened, one saw a brilliant light spring forth from it, and a sweet odor escaped from it. It was in the midst of these consoling marks of divine assistance that the precious bones were removed from the crypt and deposited in the more worthy place that had been prepared for them.

This Translation was therefore, strictly speaking, only an elevation of the body, which was moved from one place to another without being transported from one building to another; for they had not wanted to touch the holy deposit immediately after having found it under the rubble. It had only been covered with care at that time; the new church, more vast and more magnificent, had been built on the same site; the ceremony that we are recounting must have consisted, as we have just seen, only in a sort of inauguration of these venerated remains. The authors of the life of our Saint report a great number of miracles performed during this religious journey. From that day on, the crowds of the faithful flocked from all parts toward the church, and each year the memory of this memorable fact was renewed there by a solemn feast.

It is not known how long the holy body remained without injury from the barbarians in the peace of its new and more worthy sepulcher; what is certain is that Poitiers still possessed it in 828. But the Normans had already made themselves masters of the city up to three times after the reign of Charlemagne, and, in one of these expeditions, the church of Saint-Hilaire having been burned, the relics suffered from these acts of violence: they were only saved from complete destruction with great difficulty. It was undoubtedly to protect them from new dangers that were threatened every day that they were transported, towards the beginning of the 10th century, to the city of Le Puy-e ville du Puy en Velay Birthplace of the saint in France. n-Velay, where they were rediscovered in 1655. This was after an oblivion of six or seven hundred years, which must be attributed, like so many others of this kind, to the events of the intervening eras. At the request of the chapter of Saint -Hilaire of Poitiers, Mgr H Mgr Henri de Manpas du Tour 17th-century Bishop of Poitiers who authenticated the relics. enri de Manpas du Tour, Bishop of Poitiers, having recognized the authenticity of these relics, kindly ceded a portion of them to our famous collegiate church: these are in part those that it still possesses today. The Chapter celebrated this other Translation as a feast on November 25th of each year.

Finally, in 1823, Mgr de Bouillé, Bishop of Poitiers, obtained from Mgr de Donald, Bishop of Le Puy, who later became Cardinal Archbishop of Lyon, a new portion of the head of our glorious Doctor, which is kept in the cathedral treasury and remains exposed each year in the sanctuary throughout the octave of his feast.

Excerpt from the Lives of the Saints of the Church of Poitiers, by M. Abbé Aubur, canon of the cathedral of Poitiers and historiographer of the diocese.