Monday April 3:
Monday in Lent


Purple vestments

First Reading: Isaiah 65: 17-21
Responsorial: Psalm 30: 2, 4-6, 11-13
Gospel Reading: John 4: 43-54

Tuesday April 4:
Tuesday in Lent and
Optional Feast of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Purple vestments

First Reading: Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12
Responsorial: Psalm 45: 2-3, 4-6, 8-9
Gospel Reading: John 5: 1-16

   Not to be confused with the other saint born in the twelfth century who is the patron saint of farmers, this Saint Isidore of Seville was born in 556 most probably through Roman parents. It was a holy family for three others among his immediate family became saints also: Saint Leander, Fulgentius, both brothers, and his sister Florentina. But he is the one most famous from this family. Though he was most interested in the monastic rule and its strict observance to which he composed his own rule that was observed faithfully throughout Spain, he was never a monk. He was, however a bishop and succeeded Leander as Bishop of Seville. There for forty years he governed the diocese, converting the pagan Visigoths who had embraced Arianism to the Catholic faith. He was loved by all and founded a famous seminary in Seville where he also headed the faculty. It was so successful that in 633 the Fourth Council of Toledo made it mandatory that the same curriculum be established in other schools which would become the benchmark and model for famous universities throughout Europe. Isidore was an etremely educated man who was also a great historian, having written the History of the Goths and the Book of Etymologies; the latter dealt with word origins helping all understand languages while the former was a compendium of mankind's journey to that time. He died in 636 at the ripe age of 80 and was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Innocent XIII in 1722.

          

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