Saint Isidore of Sevilles

Saint Isidore was born in 560 in the town of Seville. Saint Isidore of Seville came from a notoriously wealthy and powerful family in Spain. All three of his siblings, two brothers and a sister, are now patron saints along with Isidore. They all loved each other very much, but often disagreed on many topics. His brothers were bishops during their life times and his sister would live her life as an abbess.

Isidore was the youngest in his family and he could nearly always be found trying to impress his older siblings. Many people can vouch for the statement that keeping up with older siblings can be a very tough thing to do for youngest of the bunch, and Isidore struggled with this battle. He was always upset with himself because he couldn't do things like his brothers and sister could. Isidore ran away one day out of frustration with himself. He came to the conclusion, while hiding out in the woods by himself, that he just had to keep trying things and eventually he would become as good as his brothers and sister. He just needed to practice.

Isidore returned home and his siblings were very happy to have him back. They were extremely worried about him in his absence, seeing as he told nobody of his plans. His siblings thought Isidore was a danger to himself, and expected fully that he would run away again. This led to their decision to send him to a cold cell in their basement. This was terrible treatment by his siblings, but Isidore eventually convinced them he was going to be fine and they let him out. They only did this mean spirited act because they feared losing him again so much.

Isidore was also keen on sharing knowledge with other people. His biggest love in life was writing because he was sharing knowledge on a widespread basis by doing so. His favorite topics were grammar, history, and astronomy. Isidore was also responsible for having many of the finest seminaries built.

When one of Isidore's older brothers died, he took his place as bishop over Seville. Isidore convinced the pagan Visigoths to become Christians during his time as bishop, which was a great feat.

Saint Isidore lived to be eighty years old before passing away in 636. Isidore was a selfless person and he made sure all of his personal belongings and money were left to the needy in his home country of Spain.