Isidore of Seville

Saint Isidore of Seville
St. Isidore of Seville (1655), depicted by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church
Born	c. 560 Cartagena
Died	4 April 636 (aged 75–76) Seville
Venerated in	Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church
Canonized	Pre-Congregation
Feast	4 April
Attributes	Bees and apiaries Old bishop with a prince at his feet Pens Books with Saint Leander, Saint Fulgentius of Cartagena, and Saint Florentinathe Etymologiae
Patronage	Students Philosophy career
Notable work	Etymologiae
Era	Medieval philosophy
School	Etymology Augustinianism[1]
Main interests	Grammar, rhetoric, mathematics, medicine, law, languages, cities, animals and birds, the physical world, geography
Notable ideas	Isidoran map

Isidore of Seville (Latin: Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of the ancient world".^[2]

At a time of disintegration of classical culture,^[3] aristocratic violence, and widespread illiteracy, Isidore was involved in the conversion of the Arian Visigothic kings to Chalcedonian Christianity, both assisting his brother Leander of Seville and continuing after his brother's death. He was influential in the inner circle of Sisebut, Visigothic king of Hispania. Like Leander, he played a prominent role in the Councils of Toledo and Seville.

His fame after his death was based on his Etymologiae, an etymological encyclopedia that assembled extracts of many books from classical antiquity that would have otherwise been lost. This work also helped standardize the use of the period (full stop), comma, and colon.^[4]

Since the early Middle Ages, Isidore has sometimes been called Isidore the Younger or Isidore Junior (Latin: Isidorus iunior), because of the earlier history purportedly written by Isidore of Córdoba.^[5]