O Lord our God, who didst raise up thy servant Hilary to be a champion of the catholic faith: Keep us steadfast in that true faith which we professed at our baptism, that we may rejoice in having thee for our Father, and may abide in thy Son, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit; thou who livest and reignest for ever and ever.
One little-known fact about St. Hilary, one of the official Doctors (or universal teachers) of the Church, is that he is the first major bishop and theologian we know to have spoken of the double procession of the Holy Spirit from both the Father and the Son. Singificantly, Hilary, like Irenaeus before him, was an Easterner who lived and ministered in the West/Gaul. As such he is an important bridge figure between East and West.
Considering the fierce historic Eastern opposition to the infamous Filioque clause (“[i]…and the Son…[/i]”) added to the Nicene Creed by the Latin West, it’s notable that the first attestation of that controversial teaching is by Hilary, a Greek theologian of great reknown, who like Athanasius, went into exile rather than compromise the Nicene faith when Arian emperors were in power.
Thanks be to God for Hilary’s life and faithful witness.
David Handy+