April 04 - Isidore of Seville, born between 560 and 570 in Cartagena and died on April 4, 636, was a seventh-century ecclesiastic, metropolitan bishop of Hispalis (Seville), one of the main cities of the Visigothic kingdom between 601 and 636

Isidore came from a notable Hispano-Roman family. In 552, a few years before his birth, Carthago Nova (Cartagena) was occupied by the troops of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian. His parents fled with their first two children, Leander and Florentine, to settle in Seville, where two other children were later born, Fulgence and Isidore, born after 560. At that time Seville was part of the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo, where Trinitarian Christianity coexisted with Arian Christianity, favoured by King Leovigild.

On the death of their father, Léandre, now abbot of the monastery of Seville, became the guardian of his younger brother Isidore. In 576, Leander became Archbishop of Betica, succeeded in converting the new king Recarède I and presided with him at the Third Council of Toledo on 8 May 589, during which the conversion of the Visigothic king to Catholicism was made official.

Under the impulse of Leander, Seville became a particularly brilliant cultural centre, and the Episcopal Library, enriched with numerous manuscripts brought from Rome and Constantinople, in addition to those brought by Christian refugees from Africa, provided access to many works, both sacred and secular. Isidore thus received a very complete instruction.

When Léandre died in 601, the local clergy respected his wishes by electing Isidore to episcopal dignity. Isidore was close to the Visigoth Catholic rulers, especially after the advent of Sisebut in 612. It was at the request of Sisebut that he began drafting the Treaty of Nature.

As a haven of peace in the West at the end of the 6th century, Spain became the conservatory of ancient culture, with the Sevillian library as its most brilliant centre. While giving priority to the great Christian writers of the 4th to 6th centuries, such as Augustine, Cassiodorus, Gregory the Great - the latter was a personal friend of his brother Léandre - Isidore tried to take on this immense heritage in all its diversity. This is why he is sometimes associated with the oldest Fathers of the Church: Tertullian, Cyprian of Carthage, Hilary of Poitiers or Ambrose of Milan. During his ministry, he was constantly concerned with the formation and education of clergy and instituted the Sevillian Episcopal Schools. Drawing on the very rich library of Seville and supported by a large team of copyists, he compiled an enormous amount of knowledge aimed at endowing the new Catholic Church with solid intellectual foundations. He wrote several theological treatises for this purpose.