Saint of the Day – 25 October – Saint Hilary (Died c540) Bishop of Mende, France, previously having been a Monk at the renowned Lérins Abbey. and then the Abbot of a Monastery he had founded, Miracle-worker and a zealois evangeliser of the psgans in hid See and region. Born in Mende, southern France and died there in c540. Also known as – Hilary of Javols, Chély… Hilaire… Ilaro…
Ilario…
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Javols, St Hilary, Bishop.”
Hilary was the Bishop of the ancient See of Javols, in the Province of Gévaudan, in the first half of the 6th Century. In 528 he welcomed Saint Lubin of Chartres, then in exile. In 535 he took part in a Council held in Auvergne.
He built a Monastery, in which Saint Enzyme took refuge, and which, from then on, changed its patron.
Among the miracles or other exceptional events, some have come down to us. Thus, one evening as he was returning from the crypt of Saint-Privat, he was carried into the air by a gust of wind. His companions found him praying in a clearing three days later. The place was inaccessible and it was necessary to clear a path with blows of an axe.
He was also able to make water flow from a well which had been dry for seven years.
Hilar certainly died around 540, since in 541, the name of his successor is already found at the 4th Council of Orleans.
In 636 his body was translated to Saint Denis near Paris and then, in 777, under Abbot Fulrad, to Salones in the Diocese of Metz. Around 815 the Relics returned to Saint Denis where they were still located in 1625. They were dispersed during the Revolution in 1793. Some, however, had returned to Mende in 1608, where the See of Javols had been transferred.
Remembered in the Roman Martyrology today, Hilary is celebrated in the Proper of the Diocese of Mende.
Hilary gave his name and Paronage to three Villages in Lozère and Aveyron: Saint Chély d’Apchèr, Saint Chély du Tarn (canton of Ste-Enimie) and Saint Chély d’Aubrac.
AnaStpaul 