April 4 — Saint Isidore Bishop and Doctor of the Church

The Church presents to us to-day, for our devout admiration, the memory of one of the holiest of her bishops — Isidore, the bishop of Seville, the most learned man of his age, and, what is a still greater praise, the most zealous patriot and friend of his noble country. Let us study his virtues and confide in his patronage : both will help us to fervour during this holy season.

Among Christian lands, there is one that has gained for herself the glorious name of the Catholic kingdom. Towards the close of the seventh century, divine Providence subjected her to a most severe trial, by permitting the Saracen hordes to invade her : so that her heroic children had' to struggle for eight hundred years for the recovery of their country. Contemporaneously with Spain, Asia also and Africa fell under the Mussulman yoke, and have continued in their slavery up to the present day. Whence comes it that Spain has triumphed over her oppressors, and that tyranny has never been able to make her children degenerate ? The answer is easily given : Spain, at the period of her invasion, was Catholic, and Catholicity was the very spirit of the land : whereas those other nations, that yielded themselves slaves to the Saracens, were already separated from the Christian Church by heresy or schism. God abandoned them, because they had rejected both the truth of faith, and unity with the Church ; they fell an easy prey to the infidel conqueror.

LENT

Nevertheless, Spain had incurred an immense risk. The race of the Goths, by their long invasion of her territory, had sowed the seeds of heresy : Arianism had set up its sacrilegious altars in Iberia. But God did not permit this privileged country to be long under the yoke of error. Before the Saracens came upon her, she had been reconciled to the Church ; and God had chosen one family to be the glorious instrument in the completion of this great work. Even to this day, the traveller through Andalusia will find the squares of its cities adorned with four statues : they are those of three brothers and a sister : St. Leander, bishop of Seville ; St. Isidore, whose feast we are keeping to-day; St. Fulgentius, bishop of Carthagena ; and their sister, St. Florentina, a nun. It was by the zeal and eloquence of St. Leander that king Reccared and his Goths were converted from Arianism to the Catholic faith, in the year 589 ; the learning and piety of our glorious Isidore consolidated the great work ; Fulgentius gave it stability by his virtues and erudition ; and Florentina co-operated in it by her life of sacrifice and prayer.

Let us unite with the Cathcflic kingdom in honouring this family of saints ; and to-day in a special manner, let us pay the tribute of our devotion to St. Isidore. The holy liturgy thus speaks of him :

Isidorus natione Hispa- Isidore, by birth a Spaniard* mis, doctor egregius, ex was an illustrious Doctor of nova Carthagine, Severiano the Church. He was born at patre provinciae duoe natus, Carthagena, and his father, a Sanctis episcopis Leandro whose name was Severianus,

Hispalensi, et Fulgentio was governor of that part of

Carthaginensi fratribus suis the country. He was solidly pie et liberaliter educatus, trained to piety* and learning latinis, grsecis et hebraicis by his two brothers, Leander, litteris, divinisque et hu- bishop of Seville, and Ful- manis legibus instructus, gentius, bishop of Cartha- omni scientiarum, atque gena. He was taught Latin, christianarum virtutum ge- Greek, and Hebrew ; he was nere pnestantissimus evasit. put through a course of canon

APRIL 4. ST. ISIDORE

Adhuc adolescens haeresim arianam, quae gentem Gothorum Hispaniae latissime dominantem jam pridem invaserat, tanta constantia palam oppugnavit, ut parum abfuerit quin ab haeretiois neoaretur. Leandro vita functo ad Hispalensem cathedram invitus quidem, sed urgente in primis Recaredo rege, magnoque etiam cleri, populique consensu assumitur, ejusque electionem sanotus Gregorius Magnus nedum auctoritate apostolioa confirmasse, sed et eleotum transmisso de more pallio decorasse, quin etiam suum, et apostolicae Sedis in universa Hispania vicarium eonstituisse perhibetur.

In episoopatu quantum f uerit constans, humilis, patiens, miserioors, in Christiana et ecclesiastic* disciplina instauranda sollicitus, eaque verbo, et scriptis stabilienda indefessus, atque omni demum virtutum ornamento insignitus, nullius lingua enarrare sufficeret. Monastioi quoque instituti per Hispaniam promotor et amplificator eximius, plura construxit monasteria ; collegia itidem aedificavit, ubi studiis sacris et lectionibus vacans, plurimos discipulos, qui ad eum confluebant, erudivit ; quos inter sancti Udephonsus Toletanus, et Braulio Caasaraugustanus episcopi emicuerunt. Coacto Hispali and civil law ; and there was no science or virtue in which he did not excel While yet a youth, he so courageously combated the Arian heresy, which had long before infected the Goths who had entered Spain, that he with difficulty escaped being put to death by the heretics. After the death of Leander, he was, in spite of himself, raised to the episcopal See of Seville, by the influence of king Reccared, and with unanimous consent of both clergy and people. His election was not only confirmed by apostolic authority, but St. Gregory the Great, when sending him as usual the pallium, is said to have appointed him his own vicar, and that of the apostolic See, throughout all Spain.

It would be impossible to describe the virtues of Isidore as bishop : how firm, humble, patient, and merciful ; how zealously he laboured for the restoration of Christian morals and ecclesiastical discipline, and how untiring he was in his efforts, both by word and writing, to establish them among his people ; and, finally, how he excelled in every virtue. He was a fervent promoter of the monastic life in Spain, and built several monasteries. He also built colleges, in which he himself applied himself to teaching the sacred sciences to the many disciples that flocked to him; among whom may be mentioned those two glorious

LENT concilio, Acephalorum haeresim Hispanise jam minitantem, acri et eloquenti disputatione fregit atque contrivit. Tantam apud omnes sanctitatis et doctrinse f amam adeptus est, ut elapso vix ab ejus obitu sextodecimo anno, universa Toletatana synodo duorum supra quinquaginta episcoporum plaudente, ipsoque etiam sancto Ildephonso suff ragante, doctor egregius, Catholic® Eoclesise novissimum decus, in sseculorum fine doctissimus, et cum reverentia nominandus, appellari meruerit ; eumque sanctus Braulio non modo Gregorio Magno comparaverit, sed et erudiendae Hispanise loco Jacobi apostoli coelitus datum esse censuerit.

Scripsit Isidorus libros Etymologiarum, et de ecclesiasticis Officiis, aliosque quamplurimos Christian® et ecclesiastic® disciplines adeo utiles, ut sanctus Leo Papa quartus ad episoopos Britanni® scribere non dubitaverit, sicut Hieronymi et Augustini, ita Isidori dicta retinenda esse, ubi contigerit inusitatum negotium, quod per Canones minime definiri possit. Plures etiam ex ejusdem scriptis sententi® inter canonicas Ec- pontiffs, Ildephonsus bishop of Toledo, and Braulio bishop of Saragossa. In a Council held at Seville, he spoke with such power and eloquence, that he may be said to have destroyed the heresy of the Acephali, which threatened to undermine the true faith in Spain. So great, indeed, was the universal reputation he had gained for piety and learning, that he had scarcely been dead sixteen years, when, in a Council held at Toledo, and at which fifty-two bishops were present, St. Ildephonsus himself among them, he was called the illustrious doctor, the new glory of the Catholic Church, the most learned man who had been seen in those ages, and one whose name should never be mentioned but with great respect. St. Braulio not only compared him to St. Gregory the Great, but said that he looked on him as having been sent by heaven, as a seoond St. James the apostle, to instruct the people of Spain.

Isidore wrote a book on Etymologies, and another on Ecclesiastical Offices, and several others, of such importance to Christian and ecclesiastical discipline, that Pope St. Leo IV. hesitated not to say, in a letter addressed to the bishops of Britain, that one ought to adhere to the words of Isidore with the same" respect as is shown to those of Jerome and Augustine, as often as a difficult case sh6uld arise, which could not

APRIL 4. ST. ISIDORE clesiae leges relatae conspiciun- be settled by Canon Law. tur. Prsef uit Conoilio Toletano Several sentences of his works quarto omnium HispanisB nave been inserted into the celeberrimo. Denique cum body of the Canon Law. He ab Hispania arianum haere- presided over the fourth sim eliminasset, morte sua, Council of Toledo, which is et regni vastatione a Sarace- the most celebrated of all norum armis publice pre- those that have been held in nuntiata, postquam quadra- Spain. At length, after hav- ginta circiter annos suam ing driven the Arian heresy rexisset Eoclesiam, Hispali out of Spain, he publicly migravit in coelum anno foretold the day of his death, sexcentesimo trigesimo sex- and the devastation of the to. Ejus corpus inter Lean- country by the Saracens ; drum f ratrem, et Florentinam and having governed his See sororem, ut ipse mandaverat, for about forty years, he primo conditum, Perdinandus died at Seville, in the year primus Castellae et Legionis 636. His body was first rex, ab Eneto Saraceno His- buried, as he himself had pali dominante magno pretio requested, between those of redemptum, Legionem trans- his brother and sister, Lean- tulit ; et in ejus honorem der and Florentina. After- templum sBdificatum est, ubi wards, Ferdinand L, King miraculis clarus, magna po- of Castillo and Leon, pur-

Faithful pastor ! the Christian people honour thy virtues and thy services ; they rejoice in the recompense wherewith God has crowned thy merits ; hear the prayers that are offered to thee during these the days of salvation. When on earth, thy vigilance over the flock entrusted to thy care was untiring ; consider us as a part of it, and defend us from the ravenous wolves that cease not to seek our destruction. May thy prayers obtain for us the fullness of graces needed for worthily completing the holy season, which is so puli devotione colitur. chased it for a large sum of money, from Enetus, the Saracen governor of Seville, and had it translated to Leon. Here a church was built in his honour, and the miracles that are wrought by his intercession have led the people to honour him with great devotion.

LENT near its close. Keep up our courage ; incite us to fervour; prepare us for the great mysteries we are about to celebrate. We have bewailed our sins, and, though feebly, we have done penance for them ; the work of our conversion has, therefore, made progress ; and now we must perfect it by the contemplation of the Passion and death of our Redeemer. Assist us, 0 thou His faithful and loving servant ! Do thou, whose life was ever pure, take sinners under thy care and hear the prayers offered to thee on this day by the Church. Look down from heaven on thy beloved Spain, which honours thee with such earnest devotion. Revive her ancient ardour of faith ; restore to her the vigour of Christian morality ; remove from her the tares that have sprung up among the good seed. The whole Church reveres thy noble country for her staunch adhesion to the truths of faith : pray for her, that she may come unhurt from the ordeal she is now being put through, and ever prove herself worthy of that elorious title of the Catholic kingdom, which thou didst help her to gain.