Articles / Special

St. Isidore of Seville (1655), depicted by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
(Credit : Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

The 76 years of Isidore’s life were a time of conflict and growth for the Church in Spain. The Visigoths had invaded the land a century and a half earlier, and shortly before Isidore’s birth they set up their own capital. They were Arians—Christians who said Christ was not God. Thus, Spain was split in two: One people (Catholic Romans) struggled with another (Arian Goths).

Saint Isidore of Seville reunited Spain, making it a center of culture and learning. The country served as a teacher and guide for other European countries whose culture was also threatened by barbarian invaders.

Family of Saints

Isidore was born around 560 AD in Cartago Spartaria (now Cartagena, Spain), a former Carthaginian colony, to a notable family in Roman Hispania, of high social rank, his father was named Severianus and his mother Theodora. His parents were members of an influential family who were instrumental in the political-religious manoeuvring that converted the Visigothic kings from Arianism to Catholicism. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches celebrate him and all his siblings as known saints:
An elder brother, Leander, who educated Isidore, whom he succeeded as bishop of Seville;
A younger brother, Fulgentius, who served as the Bishop of Astigi;
A sister, Florentina of Cartagena, a nun who allegedly ruled over many convents and consecrated religious.

Bishop of Sevillae

After the death of his elder borther Leander of Seville on 13 March 600 or 601, Isidore succeeded to the See of Seville.

Prominent Works

An amazingly learned man, Isidoe was sometimes called “The Schoolmaster of the Middle Ages” because the encyclopedia he wrote was used as a textbook for nine centuries. He required seminaries to be built in every diocese, wrote a Rule for religious orders, and founded schools that taught every branch of learning. Isidore wrote numerous books, including a dictionary, an encyclopedia, a history of Goths, and a history of the world—beginning with creation! He completed the Mozarabic liturgy, which is still in use in Toledo, Spain.

Isidore continued his austerities even as he approached age 80. During the last six months of his life, he increased his charities so much that his house was crowded from morning till night with the poor of the countryside. Isidore died on 4 April 636 after serving more than 32 years as archbishop of Seville.

Veneration

Isidore was one of the last of the ancient Christian philosophers and was contemporary with Maximus the Confessor. He has been called the most learned man of his age by some scholars, and he exercised a far-reaching and immeasurable influence on the educational life of the Middle Ages. His contemporary and friend Braulio of Zaragoza said of him: "After so much destruction and so many disasters, God has raised him in recent times to restore the monuments of the ancients, so that we would not fall completely into barbarism".

The Eighth Council of Toledo (653) recorded its admiration of his character in these glowing terms: "The extraordinary doctor, the latest ornament of the Catholic Church, the most learned man of the latter ages, always to be named with reverence, Isidore". This tribute was endorsed by the Fifteenth Council of Toledo, held in 688. Isidore was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1722 by Pope Innocent XIII.

Pope John Paul II named Saint Isidore the patron saint of the internet in 1997 , recognising his impact on knowledge and communication.

Relics

Upon his death in 636, Isidore was initially buried in Seville, specifically in a tomb alongside his siblings, Leander and Florentina.
In the middle of the 11th century (1063), King Ferdinand I of León and Castile obtained the remains from the ruler of Seville. They were translated to the specifically constructed Basilica of San Isidoro in León. Many of his bones are housed in a silver urn in the main sanctuary of the Basilica of San Isidoro in León. Some relics are also associated with the cathedral of Murcia, Spain.

Article by Catholic Time Staff