Today we celebrate saint Isidore of Seville. He was a younger brother of Leander, Archbishop of Seville. He was taught under the responsibility of his elder brother to develop a very strong discipline, in devoting himself to study with discretion and discernment.

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, 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. 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.

—Isidore sought in Christ's example the definitive confirmation of a just orientation of life and said: «Just as we must love God in contemplation, so we must love our neighbour with action».