SAINT ISIDORE OF SEVILLE AND LIBERAL ARTS (560-636)

The entire field of education owes its existence to the Holy Bishops of the early church.  Bishop Isidore made the first Encyclopedia and introduced the liberal arts school in every diocese of Spain.  

He also authored a book of legislation that saved Spain from barbarism.  A pastoral bishop, he converted the Visigoths from the Arian heresy back to Catholicism.  Isidore trained his people so well that, when the Moors overran Spain in 711, they were not able to convert any Spaniard to Islam. 

Isidore is a Doctor of the Church and the glory of the Catholic Church in Spain.  In his writing, he decried segregation in any of its form:  "All kinds of people as long as they seek God, shall be admitted in my monasteries."  

(01-23-05)