A Family of Saints
Isidore was born around the year 560 at Cartagena in Spain, into a family connected with the Visigothic nobility. Remarkably, three of his siblings are also venerated as saints: his elder brother Leander, who preceded him as Archbishop of Seville; his brother Fulgentius, who became a bishop; and his sister Florentina, who lived as a nun. Together the family was instrumental in turning the Visigothic kings from the Arian heresy to the Orthodox faith.
Orphaned while still young, Isidore was raised and educated by his brother Leander. Through the cathedral school of Seville he acquired a wide learning that, by the accounts, embraced Latin, Hebrew, and Greek, an education that would later bear fruit in his many writings.
Archbishop of Seville
On the death of Leander around the year 600, Isidore succeeded his brother as Archbishop of Seville, an office he would hold for more than thirty years. As archbishop he continued the work his family had begun, helping to lead the conversion of the Visigoths from Arianism to the Orthodox faith.
He took a leading part in the councils of the Church in Spain, presiding over the Second Council of Seville in 619, which advanced the eradication of Arianism, and over the Fourth Council of Toledo in 633. The Council of Toledo, under his guidance, directed that bishops establish schools in their cathedral cities, reflecting his lifelong concern for learning. Though not himself a monastic, he professed himself a protector of monks and composed a Rule for monastic life.
Scholar and Encyclopedist
Isidore is remembered above all as one of the most learned men of his time, and he has been called the last scholar of the ancient world for his labor in gathering and preserving classical knowledge during an age of cultural decline. His writings ranged across history, theology, natural science, and language.
His most famous work, the Etymologiae, is a great encyclopedia compiled in twenty books that gathered the knowledge of his time and preserved fragments of classical learning; it was read and copied throughout the Middle Ages. Among his many other works are a History of the Kings of the Goths, Vandals, and Suebi, the universal chronicle known as the Chronica Majora, and the treatise De natura rerum on natural history and astronomy.
Repose and Veneration
Isidore reposed on April 4 in the year 636 at Seville, where he had served so long as archbishop. His relics were later translated to the Basilica of San Isidoro in Leon. As a pre-schism Western saint of the undivided Church, he is honored in the Orthodox Church and commemorated on April 4.
