April 4 — Saint Isidore

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. He comes to speak to us upon the glories of our Kisen Jesus. The Gothic, or Mozarabic Liturgy, which has given us such admirable prayers for this Season, was drawn up mainly by St. Isidore ; and the explanation we have offered to our readers, regarding the mystery of Paschal Time, was partially taken from the celebrated treatise wherein the Saint has so learnedly summed up the ancient traditions in reference to the Liturgy.

Among Christian lands, there is one that has gained for herself the glorious name of The Catholic Kingdom. Towards the close of the 7th 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,

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PASCHAL TIME. 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 ta 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.

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 Catholic 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.

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Isidore, by birth a Spaniard, was an illustrious Doctor of the Church. He was born at Carthagena, and his father, whose name was Severianus, was governor of that part of the country. He was solidly trained to piety and learning by his two brothers, Leander, Bishop of Seville, and Fulgentius, Bishop of Carthagena. He was taught Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; he was put through a course of canon and civil law ; and there was no science or virtue in which he did not excel Whilst yet a youth, he so courageously combated the Arian heresy, which had long before infested 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,

Isidorus natione Hispanus, doctor egregius, ex nova Carthagine, Severiano patre provinci® duce natus, a Sanctis episcopis Leandro Hispalensi, et Fulgentio Carthaginensi fratribus suis pie et liberaliter educatus, latinis, graecis et hebraicis litteris, divinisque et humanis legibus instructus, omni scientiarum, atque christianarum virtutum genere praestantissimus evasit. Adhuc adolescens haeresim arianam, quae gentem Gothorum Hispaniae latissime dominantem jam pridem invaserat, tanta constantia palam oppugnavit, ut pa* rum abfuerit quin ab haereticis necaretur. Leandro vita functo ad Hispalensem cathedram invitus quidem, sed urgente in primis Recaredo rege, magnoque etiam cleri, populique consensu assumitur, ej usque electionem sanctus Gregorius Magnus nedum authoritate Apostolica confirmasse, sed et electum transmisso de more pallio decorasse, auiu etiam suum, et Apostolicie Sedis in universa Hispania vicarium constituisse perhibetur.

In Episcopatu quantum fuerit constans, numilis, patiens, misericors, in Christiana et ecclesiastica disciplina instauranda solicitus, eaque verbo, et scriptis stabilienda indefessus, at*

324 PASCR que omni demum virtutum ornamento insignitus, nullius lingua enarrare sufficeret Monastici quoque instituti per Hispaniam promotor et amplificator eximius, plura const ruxit monastena ; collegia itidem »dificavit, ubi studiis sacris, et lectionibus vacans plurimos discipulos, qui ad eum confluebant, erudivit ; quos inter sancti Ildephonsus Toletanus,et Braulio Csesaraugustanus episcopi emicuerunt. Coacto Hispali concilio, Acephalorum h®resim HispanieB jam minitantem, acri et eloquenti disputatione fregit atque contrivit. Tantam apud omnes sanctitatis et doctrinae famam adeptus est, ut elapso vix ab ejus obitu sextodecimo anno universa Toletanasynodo duorum supra quinquaginta episcoporum plauaente, ipsoque etiam S. Ildephonso suffragante, doctor egregius, Catholicse Ecclesise novissimum decus, in sseculorum fine doctissiraus, et cum reverentia nominandus, appellari meruerit; eumque S. Braulio non modo Gregorio Magno comparaverit, sed et erudiend&HispaniselocoJacobi Apostoli ccelitus datum esse censuerit

L TIME. and how untiring he was in his efforts, both by word and writing, to establish them among his people : and, finally f 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 the teaching the sacred sciences to the many disciples that flocked to* him; among whom may be mentioned those two glorious- Pontiffs, Ildephonsus, Bishop> of Toledo, and Braulio, Bishop of Sarragossa. 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, who were threatening to destroy the true faith in Spain. So great, indeed t 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 Catholio 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 second St. James the Apostle, to- instruct the: people of Spain.

APRIL 4. ST. ISIDORE.

Isidore wrote a book On Scripsit Isidorus libros

Etymologies, and another On Etymologiarum, et de Ec-

Ecclesiastical Offices, and se- clesiasticis officiis, aliosque veral others, of such import- quamplurimos Christianas ance to Christian and ecclesi- et ecclesiastics discipline astical discipline, that Pope adeo utiles, ut S. Leo Papa

St Leo the Fourth hesitated IV. ad episcopos Britanniae not to say in a letter addressed scribere non dubitaverit, to the Bishops of Britain, sicut Hieronymi et Augus- that one ought to adhere to tini, ita Isidori dicta reti- the words of Isidore with that nenda esse, ubi contigerit same respect as is shown to inusitatum negotiura, quod those of Jerome and Augus- per Canones minime definiri tine, as often as a difficult case possit. Plures etiam ex should arise, which could not ejusdem scriptis eententiae be settled by Canon Law. inter canonicas Ecclesise

Several sentences of his works leges relatae conspiciuntur. have been inserted into the Prasfuit Concilio Toletano omnium Hispaniae cele- Denique cum ab arianam heeresim morte sua, et regni vastatione a Saracenorum armis publice praenuntiata, postquam quadracirciter annos suam Ecclesiam, Hispali migravit in coelum anno trigesimo sex- Ejus corpus inter drum fratrem, et Florentinam sororem, ut ipse daverat, primo conditum, Ferdinandus primus Castellae, et Legionis rex ab magno pretio redemptum, Legionem transtulit : et in ejus honorem templum aedificatum est, ubi miraculis clarus, magna populi devotione colitur. s body of the Canon Law. He IV. presided over the Fourth berrimo. Council of Toledo, which is Hispania the most celebrated of all those eliminasset, that have been held in Spain, At length, after having driven the Arian heresy out of Spain, he publicly foretold the day of ginta his death, and the devastation rexisset of the country by the Saracens ; and having governed sexcentesimo his See for about fortv years to. Leanhe died at Seville, in the year 636. His body was first buried, manas himself had requested, between those of his brother and sister, Leander and Florentina. Afterwards, Ferdi- Eneto Saraceno Hispali donand the 1st, King of Cas- minante tille and Leon, purchased 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 bis intercession, have led the people to honour him with great devotion.

PASCHAL TIME.

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 intrusted to thv care was untiring ; consider us as a part of it, ana defend us from the ravenous wolves that cease not to seek our destruction. May thy prayers obtain for us that fulness of graces needed for our persevering in the new life bestowed on us by our Risen Lord. Obtain for us, that the Mystery of the Pasch, of which thou hast told us such grand things, may ever abide within us. Thy Paschal blessing, given to the Christian world, will bring it help and protection, as in times gone by. 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 glorious title of The Catholic Kingdom, which thou didst help her to gain.