Saint Ilar

A Saint Ilar ([iːlɑr]; Latin: Hilarus or Elerius[1]) is listed among the 6th-century saints of Wales[2][3] and is the probable namesake of Llanilar in Ceredigion[4][5][7][9] and its former hundred of Ilar. His feast day is variously given as 13, 14, or 15 January,[10] but is no longer observed by either the Anglican[11] or Catholic church in Wales.[12]

In Welsh and Croatian sources, 'Saint Ilar' may also refer to Saint Eleri, Hilary of Poitiers, Pope Hilarius, or Hilarion.

Saint Ilar
St Hilary's Church in Llanilar
Martyr
Died6th century
CanonizedPre-Congregation
Feast13, 14, or 15 January (lapsed)
PatronageLlanilar
Trefilan

Name and Identity

Although he has been consistently conflated with Saint Hilary of Poitiers[5][6][13][14][15] and shares a similar saint's day (Hilary's being observed on the 13th[11][12]), the Welsh saint is often listed separately as Ilar Bysgotwr[16] ("Hilary the Fisherman").[17][3][4][13] He is also given the epithets Ilar Droedwyn ("Hilary Whitefoot") and Ilar Ferthyr ("Hilary the Martyr").[5] The bishop of Poitiers, meanwhile, was a confessor and died peacefully.

Saint Hilary's own connection with Wales arose from confused accounts that he ordained Saint Cybi as a bishop, although the two were separated by two centuries.[18][19] Baring-Gould suggests this may have arisen from a confusion between Hilary and Cybi's relative Saint Elian,[20] and some of the dedications to either saint may have originally been in honor of him.[21] Another Saint Hilary, the 5th-century Pope Hilarius, was credited in Welsh legend with ordaining Saint Elvis, who in turn baptized Saint David, the patron saint of Wales.

Life
Saint Ilar, 'St Hilary's Church', Llanilar, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion,

Ilar is a very obscure saint and few details survive apart from his name.[22] Surviving records name Saint Ilar as a Breton companion of Padarn[23] and Cadfan's[2][24] 6th-century mission to Wales. He may have come from Armorica.[1] The parishes bearing his name are to the south of Tywyn (credited to Cadfan) but near some credited to Padarn. As a martyr, he may have been killed by the pagan Irish or Saxon invasions of the time.

Legacy
The church at Trefilan

In addition to the parish church at Llanilar, the church at Trefilan in Ceredigion near Lampeter is also dedicated to Saint Ilar or Hilary, the name of the community having been corrupted from an original Tref Ilar (lit. "Town of Ilar").[25] The Church in Wales also administers churches dedicated to Saint Hilary at Erbistock in Wrexham, Killay in Swansea, and the village of St Hilary near Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan.[26] Rees and others considered all of the churches of "Saint Hilary" possible remnants of dedications to Ilar.[1][4] Despite a conflicting account in the Iolo Manuscripts[24] and the Enwogion Cymru,[2] Baring-Gould opined that the church at Cowbridge was certainly dedicated to the French saint.[5]

The 15th-century poet Lewis Glyn Cothi mentions gwyl Ilar hael a'i loer hir ("the festival of generous Ilar with his long moon") in his work.[5]

Saint Ilar, his holy well and legends, and his accidental replacement by the French bishop Hilary appear in Arthur Machen's 1907 short story "Levavi Oculos"[27] and its reworked form as part of his 1922 novel The Secret Glory,[28] about a schoolboy's encounter with the Holy Grail of Welsh and Arthurian legend.

See also

References
  1. 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.
  2. Williams, 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.
  3. Jones, Owen. Cymru: yn Hanesyddol, Parthedegol a Bywgraphyddol [Wales: Historical, Topographical, and Biographical], Vol. I, p. 676, 1875 (in Welsh), cited in Y Cymmrodor, Vol. XXVII, p. 139. Society of Cymmrodorion, 1917.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Wade-Evans, A.W. "Parochiale Wallicanum" in Y Commrodor, Vol. XXII, p. 62. Honorable Society of Cymmrodorion (London), 1910. Cited in Bartrum.[6]
  8. Unnone, T.C. Notes & Queries, 5th Series, Vol. III, No. 58, p. 106. J. Francis (London), 6 Feb 1875.
  9. "Bonedd y Saint" in the Myvyrian Archæology, p. 426, cited in Notes & Queries.[8]
  10. Baring-Gould & al., Vol. I, p. 70.
  11. 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.
  12. The Catholic Church in England and Wales. "Liturgy Office: November 2015". Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, 2014. Accessed 18 Nov 2014.
  13. "Genealogy of the Saints" in The Cambro-Briton, Vol. III, p. 269. Simpkin & Marshall (London), Mar 1822.
  14. Carlisle, Nicholas. A Topographical Dictionary of the Dominion of Wales, Glossary, p. xxxvi. W. Bulmer & Co. (London), 1811.
  15. Edmunds, Flavell. Traces of History in the Names of Places: with a Vocabulary of the Roots out of which Names of Places in England and Wales are Formed, Rev. ed., p. 47. Longmans, Green, & Co. (London), 1872.
  16. Compare the Latin piscator.[8]
  17. Morris, Lewis. "Alphabetic Bonedd" (BL Add. MS. 14 928 fo. 36v.). Printed in The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, 2nd ed., p. 426. (Denbigh), 1870. Cited in Bartrum.[6]
  18. Newell, Ebenezer Josiah. A History of the Welsh Church to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, p. 58. E. Stock (London), 1895.
  19. Haddan, Arthur West & al. (eds.) Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain, Vol. I, App. E: "Legendary Lives Exist of the Following British Saints, A.D. 450–700", p. 159. Clarendon Press (Oxford), 1869.
  20. Baring-Gould & al., Vol. II, pp. 203 f.
  21. History of Wallasey. "History of Wallasey Churches". 2014.
  22. Reiter, Geoffrey. "'An Age-Old Memory': Arthur Machen's Celtic Redaction of the Welsh Revival in The Great Return" in Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy, No. 33: Welsh Mythology and Folklore in Popular Culture, p. 75. McFarland & Co. (Jefferson), 2011.
  23. Davies, J. Ceredig. "Brittany and Cardiganshire" in Transactions and Archaeological Record, Vol. I, No. 4, p. 40. Bridge Press (Lampeter) for the Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society, 1914.
  24. "Genealogies of the British Saints", supposedly from the book of Thomas Hopkin of Coychurch (1670), cited in the Jolo Manuscripts, p. 506, although note that the Iolo Manuscripts are marred by Edward William's forgeries and spurious additions to their content.
  25. Llwyd, Richard. "Topographical Notices &c." in Powell & Wynne's translation of Caradoc's History of Wales, Rev. ed., p. 88. J. Eddowes (Shrewsbury), 1832.
  26. Church in Wales. "Churches". 2014.
  27. Machen, Arthur. "Levavi Oculos" in The Academy, Vol. LXXIII, pp. 923 ff. H. E. Morgan (London), 1907. Hosted at Google Books.
  28. Machen, Arthur. The Secret Glory, II, iii. Alfred A. Knopf (New York), 1922. Hosted at the Gutenberg Project.
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