Who's Who in Medieval History
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Isidore of Seville was also known as:
Isidore of Seville was known for:
Occupations:
Places of Residence and Influence:
Important Dates:
Isidore of Seville is patron saint of:
The Life of Isidore of Seville:
Isidore was born sometime around 560 C.E. or so in Cartagena, Spain, to a fairly affluent family of some political influence. His elder brother Leander, his younger brother Fulgentius, and his sister Florentina would all become saints in the Catholic Church. The family moved to Seville while Isidore was still a young boy; his parents died around that time, and he was placed in the care of Leander, who was much older than Isidore.
Educated in the cathedral school of Seville (the first of its kind in Spain), Isidore studied the trivium and quadrivium under Leander, who by this time had been named archbishop. He displayed a remarkable facility with languages, showing some understanding of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew early on. Later, when Isidore began writing, he would become renowned as an exceptionally well-educated man.
Though it is not certain whether Isidore ever joined a particular monastic order, he clearly held monks in high regard, and once he succeeded his brother as bishop of Seville (c. 600 C.E.), he worked diligently to protect monastic brotherhoods, houses and individuals. He also wrote a rule (Regula monochorum) for the brothers of a nearby monastery (which has never been identified); though it became highly influential on Spanish monastic orders, it was virtually unknown in other countries.
As bishop, Isidore worked closely with the Visigothic rulers of the region. His brother had made efforts to convert the Visigoths from the Arian heresy they practiced to orthodox Christianity; Isidore succeeded in finishing this work, helping unite the Goths with the rest of the populace. The bishop remained the closest ecclesiastical advisor to the kings throughout his life.
Isidore participated in several church councils and presided over the second Council of Seville in 619 and the fourth Council of Toledo in 633. Some of the many significant strides made by the latter council included a decree of toleration toward the Jews, an expression of unity between church and state, and a standard form of the Mass for all in Spain. It was evidently Isidore's idea that all bishops establish seminaries in their cathedral cities, which was decreed at this council, as well.
St. Isidore lived well into his seventies. He was entombed in the cathedral at Seville, but his remains were moved to Leon in the 11th century. Isidore was canonized in 1598 and made a Doctor of the Church in 1722.
The Writings of Isidore of Seville:
Isidore was an amazingly prolific writer; but though he penned treatises on linguistics, history, science and cosmology as well as on theology, he was not known for his originality. Rather, his strength was in compiling knowledge from a wide range of sources. Today his ready acceptance of a variety of dubious facts may strike us as gullible, but his goal was in offering an aggregation of everything he could find on any given subject, which he did with clarity and accessibility.
By far the most famous of Isidore's works is his Etymologiae ("Etymologies"), which stands as the first known encyclopedia in western history. Almost as soon as he'd completed it, the Etymologiae became the standard reference work throughout medieval Europe and remained so for the next 900 years.
Isidore wrote biographies of 86 biblical figures. His other works include:
De natura rerum ("On the Nature of Things")
De officiis ecclesiasticis ("On Church Duties")
De ordine creaturarum ("On the Order of Creatures")
De ortu et obitu patrum ("On the Origin and Death of the Fathers")
Differentiarum libri ("Books of Differences")
Historia Gothorum, Wandalorum et Suevorum ("History of the Goths, the Vandals and the Sueves")
Sententiarum libri tres ("Three Books of Sentences")
Synonima ("Synonyms")
