A Saint Ilar (; or 'Stanton, Richard. ''A Menology of England and Wales: Or, Brief Memorials of the Ancient British and English Saints Arranged According to the Calendar, Together with the Martyrs of the 16th and 17th Centuries'', p. 703. Burns & Oates, 1892.) is listed among the 6th-century

saints In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Orth ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

and is the probable namesake of Llanilar in

Ceredigion Ceredigion (), historically Cardiganshire (, ), is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the West Wales, west of Wales. It borders Gwynedd across the River Dyfi, Dyfi estuary to the north, Powys to the east, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire t ...

Baring-Gould, Sabine & al
''The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and Such Irish Saints as Have Dedications in Britain'', Vol. III, pp. 299 f
Chas. Clark (London), 1908. Hosted at Archive.org. Accessed 25 Nov 2014. and its former

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

of Ilar. His

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

is variously given as 13, 14, or 15 January, but is no longer observed by either the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

The Church in Wales.
The Book of Common Prayer for Use in the Church in Wales: The New Calendar and the Collects
. 2003. Accessed 18 Nov 2014. or

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church in

.The Catholic Church in England and Wales.
Liturgy Office: November 2015
. Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, 2014. Accessed 18 Nov 2014.

Name and Identity

Although he has been consistently conflated with Saint

Hilary of Poitiers Hilary of Poitiers (; ) was Bishop of Poitiers and a Doctor of the Church. He was sometimes referred to as the "Hammer of the Arians" () and the " Athanasius of the West". His name comes from the Latin word for happy or cheerful. In addition t ...

Bartrum, Peter C
''A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend up to about A.D. 1000'', p. 438
National Library of Wales, 1993. and shares a similar saint's day (Hilary's being observed on the 13th), the Welsh saint is often listed separately as ("Hilary the Fisherman").Jones, Owen. ' 'Wales: Historical, Topographical, and Biographical'' Vol. I, p. 676, 1875 , cited in ''Y Cymmrodor'', Vol. XXVII, p. 139. Society of Cymmrodorion, 1917."Genealogy of the Saints" in ''The Cambro-Briton'', Vol. III, p. 269.
Simpkin & Marshall (London), Mar 1822. He is also given the epithets ("Hilary Whitefoot") and ("Hilary the

Martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

"). The bishop of

Poitiers Poitiers is a city on the river Clain in west-central France. It is a commune in France, commune, the capital of the Vienne (department), Vienne department and the historical center of Poitou, Poitou Province. In 2021, it had a population of 9 ...

, meanwhile, was a

confessor In a number of Christian traditions, including Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism and Anglicanism, a confessor is a priest who hears the confessions of penitents and pronounces absolution. History During the Diocletianic Persecut ...

and died peacefully. Saint Hilary's own connection with Wales arose from confused accounts that he

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

Saint Cybi as a bishop, although the two were separated by two centuries. Baring-Gould suggests this may have arisen from a confusion between Hilary and Cybi's relative Saint Elian, and some of the dedications to either saint may have originally been in honor of him.History of Wallasey.
History of Wallasey Churches
. 2014. Another Saint Hilary, the 5th-century

Pope Hilarius Pope Hilarius (also Hilarus, Hilary; died 29 February 468) was the bishop of Rome from 461 to 468. In 449, Hilarius served as a legate for Pope Leo I at the Second Council of Ephesus. His opposition to the condemnation of Flavian of Constantinopl ...

, was credited in Welsh legend with ordaining Saint Elvis, who in turn baptized

Saint David David (; ; ) was a Welsh Christian prelate who served as Bishop of Mynyw during the 6th century. He is the patron saint of Wales. David was a native of Wales, and tradition has preserved a relatively large amount of detail about his life. ...

, the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

of Wales.

Life

Ilar is a very obscure saint and few details survive apart from his name. Surviving records name Saint Ilar as a

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally **Breton people **Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Gale ...

companion of Padarn and Cadfan'sWilliams, Robert
''Enwogion Cymru: A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen from the Earliest Times to the Present and Including Every Name Connected with the Ancient History of Wales'', p. 242
Longman & Co. (London), 1852."Genealogies of the British Saints", supposedly from the book of Thomas Hopkin of Coychurch (1670), cited in th
''Jolo Manuscripts'', p. 506
although note that the '' Iolo Manuscripts'' are marred by Edward William's forgeries and spurious additions to their content. 6th-century mission to Wales. He may have come from

Armorica In ancient times, Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; ; ) was a region of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, and much of historical Normandy. Name The name ''Armorica'' is a Latinized form of the Gauli ...

. The parishes bearing his name are to the south of

Tywyn Tywyn (; ), formerly spelled Towyn, is a town, community, and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd, Wales. It was previously in the historic county of Merionethshire. It is famous as the location of the Cadfan Stone, a ...

(credited to Cadfan) but near some credited to Padarn. As a martyr, he may have been killed by the pagan Irish or

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

invasions of the time.

Legacy

In addition to the parish church at Llanilar, the church at Trefilan in

near

Lampeter Lampeter (; (formal); ''Llambed'' (colloquial)) is a town, community and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales, at the confluence of the Afon Dulas with the River Teifi. It is the third largest urban area in Ceredigion, after Aberystwyth and C ...

is also dedicated to Saint Ilar or Hilary, the name of the community having been corrupted from an original ' ( "Town of Ilar"). The

Church in Wales The Church in Wales () is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The position is currently held b ...

also administers churches dedicated to Saint Hilary at Erbistock in

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

, Killay in

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

, and the village of St Hilary near

Cowbridge Cowbridge () is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately west of the centre of Cardiff. The Cowbridge with Llanblethian community and civil parish elect a town council. A Cowbridge electoral ward exists for elections to ...

in the

Vale of Glamorgan The Vale of Glamorgan ( ), locally referred to as ''The Vale'', is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South East Wales, south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf t ...

. Rees and others considered all of the churches of "Saint Hilary" possible remnants of dedications to Ilar.Rees, Rice
''An Essay on the Welsh Saints or the Primitive Christians Usually Considered to Have Been the Founders of Churches in Wales'', p. 224
Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman (London), 1836. Despite a conflicting account in the '' Iolo Manuscripts'' and the ''Enwogion Cymru'', Baring-Gould opined that the church at Cowbridge was certainly dedicated to the French saint. The 15th-century

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

Lewis Glyn Cothi mentions ''gwyl Ilar hael a'i loer hir'' ("the festival of generous Ilar with his long moon") in his work. Saint Ilar, his

holy well A holy well or sacred spring is a well, Spring (hydrosphere), spring or small pool of water revered either in a Christianity, Christian or Paganism, pagan context, sometimes both. The water of holy wells is often thought to have healing qualitie ...

and legends, and his accidental replacement by the French bishop Hilary appear in

Arthur Machen Arthur Machen ( or ; 3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) was the pen-name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones, a Welsh people, Welsh author and mysticism, mystic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for his influential supernatural ...

's 1907 short story "Levavi Oculos" and its reworked form as part of his 1922 novel '' The Secret Glory'',Machen, Arthur
''The Secret Glory'', II, iii
Alfred A. Knopf (New York), 1922. Hosted at the Gutenberg Project. about a schoolboy's encounter with the

Holy Grail The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...

of Welsh and

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffr ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ILAR 6th-century Welsh people Medieval Welsh saints 6th-century Christian saints

Name and Identity

Life

Legacy

See also

References