Isidore of Seville

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This article is about the Archbishop of Seville. For the Spanish peasant and patron saint of Madrid,
see Isidore the Laborer.

Saint Isidore of Seville

St. Isidore of Seville (1655), depicted by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Bishop, Confessor, and Church Father

Born c. 560

Cartagena, Visigothic Kingdom

Died 4 April 636 (aged 79–80)

Seville, Visigothic Kingdom

Venerated in Catholic Church

Eastern Orthodox Church

Canonized 653 by the Eighth Council of Toledo

 Feast 4 April

Attributes Bees; Bishop holding a pen while surrounded by a

swarm of bees; bishop standing near a beehive; old

bishop with a prince at his feet; pen; priest or bishop

with pen and book; with Saint Leander, Saint

Fulgentius, and Saint Florentina; with his Etymologiae

Patronage The Internet, computer users, computer

technicians, programmers, students

Isidore of Seville

Academic background

Influences Eusebius,, Augustine Jerome, Paul the Apostle

Academic work

Era Medieval philosophy

School or Etymology

tradition Augustinianism[1]

Main grammar, rhetoric, mathematic, medicine, law, languages, cities, animals and birds,

interests the physical world, geography.

Notable Etymologiae

works

Influenced The Councils of Toledo, Dante, The Renaissance and The Middle Ages in General

Saint Isidore of Seville (/ˈɪzɪdɔːr/; Latin: Isidorus Hispalensis; Seville, c. 560 – Seville, 4 April 636),
a scholar and, for over three decades, Archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the oft-quoted
words of the 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of the ancient world."[2]
 At a time of disintegration of classical culture,[3] and aristocratic violence and illiteracy, he was
involved in the conversion of the Arian Visigothic kings to Catholicism, both assisting his
brother Leander of Seville, and continuing after his brother's death. He was influential in the inner
circle of Sisebut, Visigothic king of Hispania. Like Leander, he played a prominent role in
the Councils of Toledo and Seville. The Visigothic legislation that resulted from these councils
influenced the beginnings of representative government.
His fame after his death was based on his Etymologiae, an etymological encyclopedia which
assembled extracts of many books from classical antiquity that would have otherwise been lost.

Contents

 1Life
o 1.1Childhood and education
o 1.2Bishop of Seville
o 1.3Second Synod of Seville (November 619)
o 1.4Third Synod of Seville (624)
o 1.5Fourth National Council of Toledo
o 1.6Death
 2Work
o 2.1Etymologiae
o 2.2On the Catholic faith against the Jews
o 2.3Other works
 3Veneration
 4Legacy
 5References
o 5.1Primary sources
o 5.2Secondary sources
o 5.3Other material
 6External links

Life[edit]
Childhood and education[edit]
Isidore was born in Cartagena, Spain, a former Carthaginian colony, to Severianus and Theodora.
Both Severianus and Theodora belonged to notable Hispano-Roman families of high social
rank.[4] His parents were members of an influential family who were instrumental in the political-
religious maneuvering that converted the Visigothic kings from Arianism to Catholicism. The Catholic
Church celebrates him and all his siblings as known saints:

 An elder brother, Saint Leander of Seville, immediately preceded Saint Isidore as Archbishop of
Seville and, while in office, opposed king Liuvigild.
 A younger brother, Saint Fulgentius of Cartagena, served as the Bishop of Astigi at the start of
the new reign of the Catholic King Reccared.
 His sister, Saint Florentina, served God as a nun and allegedly ruled over forty convents and
one thousand consecrated religious. This claim seems unlikely, however, given the few
functioning monastic institutions in Iberia during her lifetime.[5]
Isidore received his elementary education in the Cathedral school of Seville. In this institution, the
first of its kind in Iberia, a body of learned men including Archbishop Saint Leander of Seville taught
the trivium and quadrivium, the classic liberal arts. Saint Isidore applied himself to study diligently
enough that he quickly mastered Latin,[6] and acquired some Greek, and Hebrew.
Two centuries of Gothic control of Iberia incrementally suppressed the ancient institutions, classic
learning, and manners of the Roman Empire. The associated culture entered a period of long-term
decline. The ruling Visigoths nevertheless showed some respect for the outward trappings of Roman
culture. Arianism meanwhile took deep root among the Visigoths as the form of Christianity that they
received.
Scholars may debate whether Isidore ever personally embraced monastic life or affiliated with any
religious order, but he undoubtedly esteemed the monks highly.
Bishop of Seville[edit]

A statue of Isidore of Seville by José Alcoverro, 1892, outside the Biblioteca Nacional de España, in Madrid

Seville Cathedral. Sculpture of Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña

After the death of Saint Leander of Seville on 13 March 600 or 601, Isidore succeeded to the See of
Seville. On his elevation to the episcopate, he immediately constituted himself as protector of
monks.
Saint Isidore recognized that the spiritual and material welfare of the people of his See depended on
the assimilation of remnant Roman and ruling barbarian cultures, and consequently attempted to
weld the peoples and subcultures of the Visigothic kingdom into a united nation. He used all
available religious resources toward this end and succeeded. Isidore practically eradicated the
heresy of Arianism and completely stifled the new heresy of Acephali at its very outset. Archbishop
Isidore strengthened religious discipline throughout his See.
Archbishop Isidore also used resources of education to counteract increasingly influential Gothic
barbarism throughout his episcopal jurisdiction. His quickening spirit animated the educational
movement centered on Seville. Saint Isidore introduced Aristotle to his countrymen long before the
Arabs studied Greek philosophy extensively.
In 619, Saint Isidore of Seville pronounced anathema against any ecclesiastic who in any way
should molest the monasteries.
Second Synod of Seville (November 619)[edit]
Main article: Second Synod of Seville

Saint Isidore presided over the Second Council of Seville, begun on 13 November 619, in the reign
of King Sisebut, a provincial council attended by eight other bishops, all from the ecclesiastical
province of Baetica in southern Spain. The Acts of the Council fully set forth the nature of Christ,
countering the conceptions of Gregory, a Syrian representing the heretical Acephali.
Third Synod of Seville (624)[edit]
Main article: Third Synod of Seville

Based on a few surviving canons found in the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, Saint Isidore is known to
have presided over an additional provincial council around 624.
The council dealt with a conflict over the See of Écija, and wrongfully stripped bishop Martianus of
his see, a situation that was rectified by the Fourth Council of Toledo. It also addressed a concern
over Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity by Sisebut failing to present their children
for baptism.
The records of the council, unlike the First and Second Councils of Seville were not preserved in
the Hispana, a collection of canons and decretals likely edited by Saint Isidore himself.[7]
Fourth National Council of Toledo[edit]
Main article: Fourth Council of Toledo

All bishops of Hispania attended the Fourth National Council of Toledo, begun on 5 December 633.
The aged Archbishop Saint Isidore presided over its deliberations and originated most enactments of
the council.
Through Isidore's influence, this Council of Toledo promulgated a decree, commanding all bishops to
establish seminaries in their cathedral cities along the lines of the cathedral school at Seville, which
had educated Saint Isidore decades earlier. The decree prescribed the study of Greek, Hebrew, and
the liberal arts and encouraged interest in law and medicine.[8] The authority of the Council made this
education policy obligatory upon all bishops of the Kingdom of the Visigoths. The council granted
remarkable position and deference to the king of the Visigoths. The independent Church bound itself
in allegiance to the acknowledged king; it said nothing of allegiance to the Bishop of Rome.
Death[edit]
Saint Isidore of Seville died on 4 April 636 after serving more than 32 years as archbishop of Seville.