Saint Ilar

A Saint Ilar (; or ) is listed among the 6th-century saints of Wales and its former hundred of Ilar. His feast day is variously given as 13, 14, or 15 January, but is no longer observed by either the Anglican or Catholic church in Wales.

Name and Identity Although he has been consistently conflated with Saint Hilary of Poitiers and shares a similar saint's day (Hilary's being observed on the 13th He is also given the epithets ("Hilary Whitefoot") and ("Hilary the Martyr"). 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. 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. Surviving records name Saint Ilar as a Breton companion of Padarn and Cadfan's 6th-century mission to Wales. He may have come from Armorica. 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. Rees and others considered all of the churches of "Saint Hilary" possible remnants of dedications to Ilar. Despite a conflicting account in the Iolo Manuscripts and its reworked form as part of his 1922 novel The Secret Glory, about a schoolboy's encounter with the Holy Grail of Welsh and Arthurian legend.