Saint Isidore of Seville
Archbishop of Seville, Doctor of the Church
(c 560 - 4 April 636) - from Spain
Feast Day - 4th April
Patron Saint of the internet (chosen by St JPII because of his encyclopedic knowledge)
Catechesis by Pope Benedict XVI
General Audience, Wednesday 18 June 2008 - in Croatian, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish
"Dear brothers and sisters,
Today I would like to speak about St Isidore of Seville. He was a younger brother of Leander, Archbishop of Seville, and a great friend of Pope Gregory the Great. Pointing this out is important because it enables us to bear in mind a cultural and spiritual approach that is indispensable for understanding Isidore's personality. Indeed, he owed much to Leander, an exacting, studious and austere person who created around his younger brother a family context marked by the ascetic requirements proper to a monk, and from the work pace demanded by a serious dedication to study. Furthermore, Leander was concerned to have the wherewithal to confront the political and social situation of that time: in those decades in fact the Visigoths, barbarians and Arians had invaded the Iberian Peninsula and taken possession of territories that belonged to the Roman Empire. It was essential to regain them for the Roman world and for Catholicism. Leander and Isidore's home was furnished with a library richly endowed with classical, pagan and Christian works. Isidore, who felt simultaneously attracted to both, was therefore taught under the responsibility of his elder brother to develop a very strong discipline, in devoting himself to study with discretion and discernment.
Thus a calm and open atmosphere prevailed in the episcopal residence in Seville. We can deduce this from Isidore's cultural and spiritual interests, as they emerge from his works themselves which include an encyclopaedic knowledge of pagan classical culture and a thorough knowledge of Christian culture. This explains the eclecticism characteristic of Isidore's literary opus who glided with the greatest of ease from Martial to Augustine or from Cicero to Gregory the Great. The inner strife that the young Isidore had to contend with, having succeeded his brother Leander on the episcopal throne of Seville in 599, was by no means unimportant. The impression of excessive voluntarism that strikes one on reading the works of this great author, considered to be the last of the Christian Fathers of antiquity, may, perhaps, actually be due to this constant struggle with himself. A few years after his death in 636, the Council of Toledo in 653 described him as "an illustrious teacher of our time and the glory of the Catholic Church".
Isidore was without a doubt a man of accentuated dialectic antitheses. Moreover, he experienced a permanent inner conflict in his personal life, similar to that which Gregory the Great and St Augustine had experienced earlier, between a desire for solitude to dedicate himself solely to meditation on the word of God, and the demands of charity to his brethren for whose salvation, as Bishop, he felt responsible. He wrote, for example, with regard to Church leaders: "The man responsible for a Church (vir ecclesiasticus) must on the one hand allow himself to be crucified to the world with the mortification of his flesh, and on the other, accept the decision of the ecclesiastical order - when it comes from God's will - to devote himself humbly to government, even if he does not wish to." Just a paragraph later he adds: "Men of God (sancti viri) do not in fact desire to dedicate themselves to things of the world and groan when by some mysterious design of God they are charged with certain responsibilities.. They do their utmost to avoid them but accept what they would like to shun and do what they would have preferred to avoid. "Indeed, they enter into the secrecy of the heart and seek there to understand what God's mysterious will is asking of them. And when they realize that they must submit to God's plans, they bend their hearts to the yoke of the divine decision."
To understand Isidore better it is first of all necessary to recall the complexity of the political situations in his time to which I have already referred: during the years of his boyhood he was obliged to experience the bitterness of exile. He was nevertheless pervaded with apostolic enthusiasm. He experienced the rapture of contributing to the formation of a people that was at last rediscovering its unity, both political and religious, with the providential conversion of Hermenegild, the heir to the Visigoth throne, from Arianism to the Catholic faith. Yet we must not underestimate the enormous difficulty of coming to grips with such very serious problems as were the relations with heretics and with the Jews. There was a whole series of problems which appear very concrete to us today too, especially if we consider what is happening in certain regions in which we seem almost to be witnessing the recurrence of situations very similar to those that existed on the Iberian Peninsular in the sixth century. The wealth of cultural knowledge that Isidore had assimilated enabled him to constantly compare the Christian newness with the Greco-Roman cultural heritage, however, rather than the precious gift of synthesis it would seem that he possessed the gift of collatio, that is, of collecting, which he expressed in an extraordinary personal erudition, although it was not always ordered as might have been desired.
In any case, his nagging worry not to overlook anything that human experience had produced in the history of his homeland and of the whole world is admirable. Isidore did not want to lose anything that man had acquired in the epochs of antiquity, regardless of whether they had been pagan, Jewish or Christian. Hence, it should not come as a surprise if, in pursuing this goal, he did not always manage to filter the knowledge he possessed sufficiently in the purifying waters of the Christian faith as he would have wished. The point is, however, that in Isidore's intentions, the proposals he made were always in tune with the Catholic faith which he staunchly upheld. In the discussion of the various theological problems, he showed that he perceived their complexity and often astutely suggested solutions that summarize and express the complete Christian truth. This has enabled believers through the ages and to our times to profit with gratitude from his definitions. A significant example of this is offered by Isidore's teaching on the relations between active and contemplative life. He wrote: "Those who seek to attain repose in contemplation must first train in the stadium of active life; and then, free from the dross of sin, they will be able to display that pure heart which alone makes the vision of God possible" (Differentiarum Lib II, 34, 133: PL 83, col 91A). Nonetheless, the realism of a true pastor convinced him of the risk the faithful run of reducing themselves to one dimension. He therefore added: "The middle way, consisting of both of these forms of life, normally turns out to be more useful in resolving those tensions which are often aggravated by the choice of a single way of life and are instead better tempered by an alternation of the two forms" (o.c., 134: ivi, col 91B).
Isidore sought in Christ's example the definitive confirmation of a just orientation of life and said: "The Saviour Jesus offers us the example of active life when during the day he devoted himself to working signs and miracles in the town, but he showed the contemplative life when he withdrew to the mountain and spent the night in prayer." In the light of this example of the divine Teacher, Isidore can conclude with this precise moral teaching: "Therefore let the servant of God, imitating Christ, dedicate himself to contemplation without denying himself active life. Behaving otherwise would not be right. Indeed, just as we must love God in contemplation, so we must love our neighbour with action. It is therefore impossible to live without the presence of both the one and the other form of life, nor can we live without experiencing both the one and the other." I consider that this is the synthesis of a life that seeks contemplation of God, dialogue with God in prayer and in the reading of Sacred Scripture, as well as action at the service of the human community and of our neighbour. This synthesis is the lesson that the great Bishop of Seville has bequeathed to us, Christians of today, called to witness to Christ at the beginning of a new millennium."
Saluti:
"Je suis heureux d’accueillir ce matin les pèlerins de langue française. Je salue particulièrement les étudiants de l’Institut de philosophie comparée, de Paris, la paroisse de Rodez, et tous les jeunes. Je vous invite à faire dans votre vie l’unité entre la contemplation de Dieu et le service de vos frères. Avec ma Bénédiction apostolique.
I am pleased to welcome the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles gathered in Rome for their General Chapter, and the participants in the Rome Seminar of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. I also warmly greet a group of survivors of the Holocaust who are present at today’s Audience. Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims, especially those from England, South Africa, Australia, Vietnam and the United States, I cordially invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace.
Mit Freude begrüße ich die deutschsprachigen Pilger und Besucher hier auf dem Petersplatz. Einen besonderen Gruß richte ich an die Wallfahrer der Suchthilfeeinrichtungen des Deutschen Ordens und natürlich auch an die Marianische Kongregation aus Köln. Achten auch wir darauf, dem Gebet und der Stille einen festen Platz in unserem Tagesablauf einzuräumen, damit unsere zahlreichen Aufgaben einen tiefen Sinn, eine Mitte erhalten und zu einem Ausdruck der Hingabe an Gott und unsere Mitmenschen werden. Der Herr segne euch und eure Familien.
Saludo con afecto a los peregrinos de lengua española, en particular, a las Religiosas Esclavas del Sagrado Corazón y a los fieles procedentes de España, Portugal, México y de otros países latinoamericanos. Que el ejemplo de San Isidoro de Sevilla os ayude a dar testimonio de Cristo al comienzo de este milenio. Muchas gracias.
A todos os amados ouvintes de língua portuguesa, com cordiais saudações, desejo felicidades, graça e paz no Senhor Jesus Cristo. Saúdo em particular os peregrinos portugueses da Diocese de Viana do Castelo: que a Virgem de Fátima vos acompanhe e ampare sempre na caminhada da fé e no crescimento do amor pelo próximo, e consiga todo o bem para os que vos são queridos. Com a minha Bênção Apostólica.
Pozdrawiam pielgrzymów polskich. Mówiąc o Ojcach i Doktorach Kościoła trzeba pamiętać, że byli oni ludźmi modlitwy. Ich aktywność, twórcza inwencja, podejmowane dzieła płynęły z ducha kontemplacji. Przykładem tego jest święty Izydor z Sewilli. Niech także nasze codzienne zadania, troska o człowieka wyrastają z ducha modlitwy. Niech będzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus.
Szeretettel köszöntöm a magyar híveket, különösen is a Tamási Áron Gimnázium tanulóit Székelyudvarhelyről. Ez a római út az apostolok sírjaihoz erősítsen meg benneteket hitben, reményben és szeretetben. Szívesen adom kedves mindnyájatokra apostoli áldásomat. Dicsértessék a Jézus Krisztus!
S láskou vítam pútnikov zo Slovenska: študentov a pedagógov Gymnázia svätého Mikuláša v Starej Ľubovni a Piaristického gymnázia Františka Hanáka w Prievidzi.
Milí mladí, ďakujem vám za modlitby, ktorými sprevádzate moju službu Nástupcu svätého Petra a zo srdca žehnám vás i vašich drahých.
Pochválený buď Ježiš Kristus!
Poseban pozdrav upućujem hrvatskim hodočasnicima, a osobito vjernicima župe Svetoga Ivana Apostola iz Zagreba. O skoroj petoj obljetnici proglašenja Ivana Merza blaženim, potičem vas da i vi svoju vjeru svakodnevno potvrđujete pobožnošću i djelima ljubavi. Hvaljen Isus i Marija!
Lepo pozdravljam romarje iz dekanije Jarenina v Sloweniji! Nai vam bosta to vaŝe romanje in srećanje s Petrovim naslednikom u spodbudo, da boste čedalje bolj napredovali v duhovnem veselju in v zvestobi Kristusovemu nauku. Naj vas vedno spremlja moj blagoslov!
* * *
"Rivolgo un cordiale saluto ai pellegrini di lingua italiana, in particolare ai sacerdoti novelli della diocesi di Brescia. Carissimi, mentre prego il Signore affinché vi sostenga nel vostro ministero, vi invito a diffondere intorno a voi quella gioia che nasce dalla generosa e fedele corrispondenza alla divina chiamata. Saluto poi voi, cari fedeli della parrocchia di San Pietro, in San Martino in Pensilis, ed auspico che questo incontro susciti in ciascuno un rinnovato slancio apostolico, per testimoniare ovunque Cristo e il Vangelo.
Il mio pensiero va, infine, ai giovani, ai malati e agli sposi novelli. Siamo alle soglie del periodo estivo, tempo di turismo e di pellegrinaggi, di ferie e di riposo. Cari giovani, mentre penso ai vostri coetanei che stanno ancora affrontando gli esami, auguro a voi già in vacanza di profittare dell’estate per utili esperienze sociali e religiose. Auguro a voi, cari malati, di trovare conforto e sollievo nella vicinanza dei vostri familiari. E a voi, cari sposi novelli, rivolgo l’invito ad utilizzare questo periodo estivo per approfondire sempre più il valore della missione nella Chiesa e nella società.
Il mio pensiero va ora ai partecipanti al Congresso Eucaristico Internazionale, che si sta svolgendo in questi giorni nella città di Québec in Canada, sul tema “L’Eucaristia, dono di Dio per la vita del mondo”. Mi rendo spiritualmente presente in così solenne incontro ecclesiale, ed auspico che esso sia per le comunità cristiane canadesi e per la Chiesa universale un tempo forte di preghiera, di riflessione e di contemplazione del mistero della santa Eucaristia. Sia pure occasione propizia per riaffermare la fede della Chiesa nella presenza reale di Cristo nel Santissimo Sacramento dell’Altare. Preghiamo inoltre perché questo Congresso Eucaristico Internazionale ravvivi nei credenti, non solo del Canada ma di tante altre Nazioni nel mondo, la consapevolezza di quei valori evangelici e spirituali che hanno forgiato la loro identità lungo il corso della storia."