Every April 4, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of San Isidoro of Seville, bishop of ancient Hispania, polymata and scholar, considered – in the words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI – “the last of the Christian parents of antiquity.”
Family, School of Holiness
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San Isidoro was born in Cartagena, Seville (Spain) in the year 556. He was the youngest of four brothers -also elevated to the altars -: San Leandro, San Fulgencio and Santa Florentina. At Casa Isidoro he learned family love, sealed by the presence of the Lord and where to pray was something everyday. He also learned the value of good discipline -Ayunos, manual work, solidarity- characteristics that gave a certain monastic air to the home.
His older brother, San Leandro, Bishop of Seville, was the one who took care of his education. Thanks to him, Isidoro acquired a broad and deep intellectual formation, in which they combined, under orthodoxy, the Christian tradition and the Greco -Roman inheritance; In addition, of course, of the good habits of study and prayer. God called, thus, the priesthood.
When Leandro died, Isidoro held the position of Bishop of Seville, serving the Church in that ecclesiastical jurisdiction for 38 years.
Active life and contemplative life in balance
One of the great difficulties suffered by many men of God is to reconcile the life of study and meditation (contemplation), with the apostolic life or the exercise of charity (action). Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in one of his catechesis, recalls the words of San Isidoro:
«Those who try to achieve the rest of contemplation must be trained before at the Active Life Stadium; Thus, freed from sin waste, they will be able to present the pure heart that allows us to see God ”(Differentiarum Lib. II, 34, 133: PL 83, Col 91 a).
Pope Emeritus comments below: «His realism (that of San Isidoro) of authentic pastor convinced him of the danger of the faithful of limiting himself to being men of a single dimension. Therefore, he adds: “The intermediate path, composed of both forms of life, is normally the most useful to solve these tensions, which are often exacerbated if a single type of life is chosen; on the other hand, they soften better alternating the two forms” (OC, 134: Ib., Col 91 b) ».
The search for this balance was constant motivation for San Isidoro. On the one hand, their love for the poor was immense, as it was always evident through the aids that reached their hands, alms that he achieved and distributed among those in need. On the other hand, he worried a lot about the formation of the clergy, and promoted the construction of a school to prepare the future priests -an advance of what centuries later the seminars would be.
The last of ancient parents
San Ildefonso said that “the ease of the word was so admirable in San Isidoro, that the crowds came from everywhere to listen to him and all were amazed at his wisdom and the great good that was obtained when he heard his teachings.”
Of all the sciences, the one that liked and recommended was the study of the Holy Bible, and wrote vast comments about it. He wrote several books, including the famous “Etymologies”, which is considered as the first dictionary made in Europe. Also – in attention to the political moment that he had to live – he wrote a “history of the Visigoths” and some biographies of illustrious characters. Therefore, many historians and theologians consider the saint as a bridge between the old age and the Middle Ages, by virtue of the ability to agglutinate the riches of the past and communicate them to the following generations.
San Isidoro was the main figure of the Council of Toledo (year 633), from which the rector canonical principles of the Church of Spain emerged, and that contributed strongly to the formation of the country. Benedict XVI recalled: “A few years after his death, which took place in 636, the Council of Toledo, of the year 653, defined it:” Illustrious teacher of our time and glory of the Catholic Church “.”
San Isidoro de Sevilla died on April 4, 636, at 80. He was declared a doctor of the Church on April 25, 1722 by Pope Innocent XIII.
If you want to know more about this distinguished saint, you can review the following articles of the Catholic Encyclopedia:
https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/San_Isidoro_de_Sevilla
https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/San_Isidoro_de_Sevilla_en_las_audiencias_de_Benedicto_XVI
More information in the following link:
Central writing
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