By Christina I. Hermoso
The Roman Catholic Church marks today the feast of a great Latin Church Father and a Doctor of the Church - San Isidro of Seville (Saint Isidore), who remains well-venerated in many parts of the world to this day.
San Isidro was one of the most admired scholars of the early Middle Ages. Born in Cartagena, Spain in the year 560, he served as bishop of Seville for more than three decades beginning in the year 600. Through his efforts and guidance,Spain became a center of culture.
A voluminous writer, his famous works include the “Etymologies,” an early encyclopedia that compiled all the sciences and was used extensively by science students during the Middle Ages, and the “Three Books of Sentences,” which was the early Catholic Church’s manual of Christian doctrine and ethics.
San Isidro died in 636 and was canonized in 1598. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1722 and is honored to this day in Spain as the most illustrious Doctor of the Church.