The Saints: St. Isidore of Seville

C. 565 - 636

Feast – April 1

Isidore succeeded his elder brother, St. Leander, as bishop of Seville about 600, and strengthened the Spanish Church by organizing councils, establishing schools and religious houses, and continuing to refute the Arian heresy among the Visigoths. But he is best remembered for his prodigious scholarship, writing in religion, history and science. His last work, an encyclopedia of the knowledge of his time, and his history of the Goths and Vandals were used throughout the Middle Ages. He was mentioned in Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy.”