Thursday, April 4, 2013 - Litany Lane Blog: Invocation, Psalms 8:2-9, Acts 3:11-26, Luke 24:35-48 , Pope Frances Daily Activity, St Isidore, Seville Spain, Catholic Catechism Part Two: THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH - Article 1:2:3 Sacrament of Baptism - How is the Sacrament of Baptism Celebrated?

Thursday,  April 4, 2013 - Litany Lane Blog:

Invocation, Psalms 8:2-9, Acts 3:11-26, Luke 24:35-48 , Pope Frances Daily Activity, St Isidore, Seville Spain, Catholic Catechism Part Two: THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH - Article 1:2:3 Sacrament of Baptism - How is the Sacrament of Baptism Celebrated?

Good Day Bloggers!  Wishing everyone a Blessed Week!

Year of Faith - October 11, 2012 - November 24, 2013

P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Serenity Happens). It has a remarkable way of producing solace, peace, patience and tranquility and of course resolution...God's always available 24/7.

The world begins and ends everyday for someone.  We are all human. We all experience birth, life and death. We all have flaws but we also all have the gift of knowledge and free will, make the most of these gifts. Life on earth is a stepping stone to our eternal home in Heaven. Its your choice whether to rise towards eternal light or lost to eternal darkness. Material items, though needed for sustenance and survival on earth are of earthly value only. The only thing that passes from this earth to Purgatory and/or Heaven is our Soul, our Spirit...it's God's perpetual gift to us...Embrace it, treasure it, nurture it, protect it...

"Raise not a hand to another unless it is to offer in peace and goodwill." ~ Zarya Parx 2012

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Prayers for Today: Thursday in Easter

Rosary - Luminious Mysteries

Divine Mercy Chaplet

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 Papam Franciscus
(Pope Francis)

Liturgical Celebrations to be presided over by Pope: April–May

Vatican City, 3 April 2013 (VIS) – Following is the calendar of celebrations scheduled to be presided over by the Holy Father in the months of April and May, 2013. All can be views via Vatican CTV or heard viae Vatican Radio both accessed through Vatican news.va website.


APRIL
7 April, Second Sunday of Easter, or Divine Mercy Sunday: 5:30pm,Mass in the Basilica of St. John Lateran for the Bishop of Rome to take possession of the Roman cathedra.

14 April, Sunday: 5:30pm, Mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls

21 April, Sunday: 9:30am, Mass and priestly ordinations in St. Peter's Basilica.

28 April, Sunday: 10:00am, Mass and confirmations in St. Peter's Square.

MAY
4 May, Saturday: 6:00pm, Recitation of the Rosary in the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

5 May, Sunday: 10:00am, Mass for Confraternities in St. Peter's Square.

12 May, Sunday: 9:30am, Mass and canonizations of Blesseds Antonio Primaldo and Companions; Laura di Santa Caterina da Siena Montoya y Upegui; and Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala.

18 May, Saturday: 6:00pm, Pentecost Vigil in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.

19 May, Pentecost Sunday: 10:00am, Mass in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.

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Pope Francis Apri 4 2013 Homily: "The Joyful Wonder of Being Christian"

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated morning Mass Thursday in Domus Sanctae Marthae together with staff of the Vatican Typography during which he spoke of the wonder of our encounter with the Risen Lord. 

Continuing his reflections on the Pascal Mystery as presented in the Liturgy of the Word, Thursday in the Octave of Easter, Pope Francis noted how all of the readings speak of amazement and wonder: the crowds' amazement at Peter’s healing of the crippled man and the wonder of the disciples at the Risen Christ’s appearance to them.

"Wonder is a great grace, the grace that God gives us in our encounter with Jesus Christ. It is something that draws us outside of ourselves with joy ... it is not a mere enthusiasm" like that of sports fans "when their favorite team wins", but "it's something deeper". It is having an inner experience of meeting the Living Christ and thinking that it is not possible: "But the Lord helps us understand that is the reality. It is wonderful! "

"Perhaps, the opposite experience is more common, the [experience] that human weakness and even mental illness, or the devil, lead us to believe that ghosts, fantasies, are reality: that is not of God. This joy, that is so unbelievably great, is of God. And we think, 'No, this can’t be real!'. This is the Lord's. This wonder is the beginning of the habitual state of Christians. "

Pope Francis continued, "of course we cannot live forever in [a state of] wonder. No, we really cannot. But it is the beginning. Then, this astonishment leaves an impression in the soul and spiritual consolation. It is the consolation of those who have encountered Jesus Christ”.

Pope Francis concluded: "First wonder, then spiritual consolation and finally, the last step: peace. Even in the most painful tests, a Christian never loses the peace and presence of Jesus. With a little 'courage' we can pray: 'Lord, grant me this grace which is the hallmark of our encounter with you: spiritual consolation and peace'. A peace that we cannot lose because it is ours, it is the Lord's true peace that cannot be bought or sold. It is a gift from God. This is why we ask for the grace of spiritual consolation and peace of mind, that starts with this joyful wonder of our encounter with Jesus Christ. So be it. "

Reference: 

• Vatican News. From the Pope. © Copyright 2013 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Accessed 04/03/2013.

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Message, April 2, 2013 Our Lady of Medjugorje Message to the World:"Dear children, I am calling you to be one with my Son in spirit. I am calling you, through prayer, and the Holy Mass when my Son unites Himself with you in a special way, to try to be like Him; that, like Him, you may always be ready to carry out God's will and not seek the fulfillment of your own. Because, my children, it is according to God's will that you are and that you exist, and without God's will you are nothing. As a mother I am asking you to speak about the glory of God with your life because, in that way, you will also glorify yourself in accordance to His will. Show humility and love for your neighbour to everyone. Through such humility and love, my Son saved you and opened the way for you to the Heavenly Father. I implore you to keep opening the way to the Heavenly Father for all those who have not come to know Him and have not opened their hearts to His love. By your life, open the way to all those who still wander in search of the truth. My children, be my apostles who have not lived in vain. Do not forget that you will come before the Heavenly Father and tell Him about yourself. Be ready! Again I am warning you, pray for those whom my Son called, whose hands He blessed and whom He gave as a gift to you. Pray, pray, pray for your shepherds. Thank you." 


Message, 25. March 2013 Our Lady of Medjugorje Message to the World:
“Dear children! In this time of grace I call you to take the cross of my beloved Son Jesus in your hands and to meditate on His passion and death. May your suffering be united in His suffering and love will win, because He who is love gave Himself out of love to save each of you. Pray, pray, pray until love and peace begin to reign in your hearts. Thank you for having responded to my call.”


March 18, 2013 Message to the World via Annual Apparition to Mirjana:
"Dear children! I call you to, with complete trust and joy, bless the name of the Lord and, day by day, to give Him thanks from the heart for His great love. My Son, through that love which He showed by the Cross, gave you the possibility to be forgiven for everything; so that you do not have to be ashamed or to hide, and out of fear not to open the door of your heart to my Son. To the contrary, my children, reconcile with the Heavenly Father so that you may be able to come to love yourselves as my Son loves you. When you come to love yourselves, you will also love others; in them you will see my Son and recognize the greatness of His love. Live in faith! Through me, my Son is preparing you for the works which He desires to do through you – works through which He desires to be glorified. Give Him thanks. Especially thank Him for the shepherds - for your intercessors in the reconciliation with the Heavenly Father. I am thanking you, my children. Thank you."

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Today's Word:  invocation  in·vo·ca·tion  [in-vuh-key-shuhn]  

Origin: 1325–75; Middle English invocacio ( u ) n  < Latin invocātiōn-  (stem of invocātiō ). See invocate, -ion

noun

1.  the act of invoking or calling upon a deity, spirit, etc., for aid, protection, inspiration, or the like; supplication.

2.  any petitioning or supplication for help or aid.

3.  a form of prayer invoking God's presence, especially one said at the beginning of a religious service or public ceremony.

4.  an entreaty for aid and guidance from a Muse, deity, etc., at the beginning of an epic or epiclike poem.

5.  the act of calling upon a spirit by incantation.

6.  the magic formula used to conjure up a spirit; incantation.

7.  the act of calling upon or referring to something, as a concept or document, for support and justification in a particular circumstance.

8.  the enforcing or use of a legal or moral precept or right.

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Today's Old Testament Reading -   Psalms 8:2-9

² even through the mouths of children, or of babes in arms, you make him a fortress, firm against your foes, to subdue the enemy and the rebel.

⁵ Yet you have made him little less than a god, you have crowned him with glory and beauty,

⁶ made him lord of the works of your hands, put all things under his feet,

⁷ sheep and cattle, all of them, and even the wild beasts,

⁸ birds in the sky, fish in the sea, when he makes his way across the ocean.

⁹ Yahweh our Lord, how majestic your name throughout the world!

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Today's Epistle -  Acts 3:11-26

¹¹ Everyone came running towards them in great excitement, to the Portico of Solomon, as it is called, where the man was still clinging to Peter and John.

¹² When Peter saw the people he addressed them, 'Men of Israel, why are you so surprised at this? Why are you staring at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or holiness?

¹³ It is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, who has glorified his servant Jesus whom you handed over and then disowned in the presence of Pilate after he had given his verdict to release him.

¹⁴ It was you who accused the Holy and Upright One, you who demanded that a murderer should be released to you

¹⁵ while you killed the prince of life. God, however, raised him from the dead, and to that fact we are witnesses;

¹⁶ and it is the name of Jesus which, through faith in him, has brought back the strength of this man whom you see here and who is well known to you. It is faith in him that has restored this man to health, as you can all see.

¹⁷ 'Now I know, brothers, that neither you nor your leaders had any idea what you were really doing;

¹⁸ but this was the way God carried out what he had foretold, when he said through all his prophets that his Christ would suffer.

¹⁹ Now you must repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,

²⁰ and so that the Lord may send the time of comfort. Then he will send you the Christ he has predestined, that is Jesus,

²¹ whom heaven must keep till the universal restoration comes which God proclaimed, speaking through his holy prophets.

²² Moses, for example, said, "From among your brothers the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me; you will listen to whatever he tells you.

²³ Anyone who refuses to listen to that prophet shall be cut off from the people."

²⁴ In fact, all the prophets that have ever spoken, from Samuel onwards, have predicted these days.

²⁵ 'You are the heirs of the prophets, the heirs of the covenant God made with your ancestors when he told Abraham, "All the nations of the earth will be blessed in your descendants".

²⁶ It was for you in the first place that God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you as every one of you turns from his wicked ways.'

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Today's Gospel Reading - Luke 24: 35-48

Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognized him at the breaking of bread. They were still talking about all this when he himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you!' In a state of alarm and fright, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said, 'Why are you so agitated, and why are these doubts stirring in your hearts? See by my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Touch me and see for yourselves; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you can see I have.' And as he said this he showed them his hands and his feet. Their joy was so great that they still could not believe it, as they were dumbfounded; so he said to them, 'Have you anything here to eat?' And they offered him a piece of grilled fish, which he took and ate before their eyes. Then he told them, 'This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms, was destined to be fulfilled.' He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, 'So it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this. 


 Reflection

• In these days after Easter, the texts of the Gospel narrate the apparitions of Jesus. At the beginning, in the first years after the death and the Resurrection of Jesus, the Christians were concerned in defending the Resurrection through the apparitions. They themselves, the living community, were a great apparition of the Risen Jesus. But in the measure in which the criticism of the enemies against the faith in the Resurrection increased, and that internally, there arose criticism and doubts concerning diverse functions in the community (cf. 1 Co 1, 12), they began to recall the apparitions of Jesus. There are two types of apparitions: (a) those which stress the doubts and the resistance of the disciples in believing in the Resurrection, and (b) those who call the attention toward the orders of Jesus to the disciples – men and women – conferring some mission to them. The first respond to the criticism which come from outside. These show that Christians are not naïve and credulous persons who accept everything and anything, rather all the contrary. They themselves had many doubts in believing in the Resurrection. The others respond to the criticism from within and found the community functions and tasks, not on human qualities which are always debatable, but on the authority and orders received from the Risen Jesus. The apparitions of Jesus in today’s Gospel put together two different aspects: the doubts of the disciples and the mission to announce and to forgive received from Jesus.

• Luke 24, 35: The summary of the story of Emmaus. Returning to Jerusalem, the two disciples found the community together and they shared with them the experience that they had lived. They told them what had happened along the road and how they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread. The community gathered together, in turn, shared the apparition of Jesus to Peter. This was a reciprocal sharing of the experience of the Resurrection, as it also happens today when the communities gather together to share and celebrate their faith, their hope and their love.

• Luke 24, 36-37: The apparition of Jesus causes great fright in the disciples. At this moment, Jesus becomes present among them and says: “Peace be with you!” This is the most frequent greeting of Jesus: “Peace be with you!” (Jn 14, 27; 16, 33; 20, 19.21.26). But the disciples in seeing Jesus were frightened and did not recognize him. Before them is Jesus in person, but they think that they are seeing a ghost, a phantasm. They cannot believe it. It is not the encounter between Jesus of Nazareth and the Risen Jesus.

• Luke 24, 38-40: Jesus helps them to overcome fear and unbelief. Jesus does two things to help the disciples overcome the fear and the unbelief. He shows them his hands and his feet, saying: “It is I myself!”, and tells them to touch his body saying: “A ghost has no flesh and bones as you can see I have!” Jesus shows his hands and feet because in them is the sign of the nails (cf. Jn 20, 25-27). The Risen Christ is Jesus of Nazareth, the same one who was nailed on the Cross and not a phantasm Christ as the disciples imagined, when they saw him. He orders them to touch his body, because the Resurrection is the Resurrection of the whole person, body and soul. The Resurrection has nothing to do with the theory of the immortality of the soul, which the Greeks taught.

• Luke 24, 41-43: The other gesture to help them overcome unbelief. But it does not suffice! Luke said that they could not believe because their joy was so great that they became dumbfounded. Jesus asks them to give him something to eat. They offered him some fish and he eats before them, to help them to overcome the doubt.

• Luke 24, 44-47: A key for the reading to understand the new significance of the Scripture. One of the greatest difficulties of the first Christians was that of accepting the crucified as the promised Messiah, because the Law taught that a crucified person was a “person cursed by God” (Dt 21, 22-23). For this reason, it was important to know that Scripture had already announced that “Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that in his name, conversion and forgiveness of sins would be preached to all peoples”. Jesus shows them that which had already been written in the Law of Moses, in the prophets and in the Psalms. Jesus risen from the dead, alive in their midst, becomes the key to open to them the total significance of Sacred Scripture.

• Luke 24, 48: You are witnesses of this. In this last order is enclosed the whole mission of the Christian communities: to be witnesses of the Resurrection, in such a way that the love of God which accepts us and forgives us will be manifested, and which wants us to live in community as sons and daughters, brothers and sisters with one another. 


Personal questions

• Some times, unbelief and doubt set in the heart and weaken the certainty that faith gives us concerning the presence of God in our life. Have you ever lived this some times? How have you overcome it?
• Our mission, and also my mission, is that of being a witness of the love of God revealed in Jesus. Am I a witness of this love? 



Reference: Courtesy of Order of Carmelites, www.ocarm.org.

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Featured Item of the Day from Litany Lane

Our Mother of Perpetual Help Ipad Cases by LitanyLane

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Saint of the Day:  Saints Isidore of Seville

Feast Day:  April 4

Patron Saint:  the Internet, computer users, computer technicians, computer programmers and students

Attributes:  bees; Bishop holding a pen while surrounded by a swarm of bees; bishop standing near a beehive; old bishop with a prince at his feet; pen; priest or bishop with pen and book; with Saint Leander, Saint Fulgentius, and Saint Florentina; with his Etymologiae.

Saint Isidore of Seville (Spanish: San Isidro or San Isidoro de Sevilla, Latin: Isidorus Hispalensis) (c. 560 – 4 April 636) served as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "the last scholar of the ancient world".^[1] Indeed, all the later medieval history-writing of Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal) was based on his histories.

At a time of disintegration of classical culture,^[2] and aristocratic violence and illiteracy, he was involved in the conversion of the royal Visigothic Arians to Catholicism, 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. The Visigothic legislation that resulted from these councils is regarded by modern historians as exercising an important influence on the beginnings of representative government.

Life

Childhood and education

Isidore was probably born in Cartagena, Spain to Severianus and Theodora. His father belonged to a Hispano-Roman family of high social rank while his mother was of Visigothic origin and apparently, was distantly related to Visigothic royalty. His parents were members of an influential family who were instrumental in the political-religious maneuvering that converted the Visigothic kings from Arianism to Catholicism. The Catholic Church celebrates him and all his siblings as known saints:

• An elder brother, Saint Leander of Seville, immediately preceded Saint Isidore as Archbishop of Seville and, while in office, opposed king Liuvigild.
• A younger brother, Saint Fulgentius of Cartagena, served as the Bishop of Astigi at the start of the new reign of the Catholic King Reccared.
• His sister, Saint Florentina, served God as a nun and allegedly ruled over forty convents and one thousand consecrated religious. This claim seems unlikely, however, given the few functioning monastic institutions in Iberia during her lifetime.^[3] 

 

 Isidore received his elementary education in the Cathedral school of Seville. In this institution, the first of its kind in Iberia, a body of learned men including Archbishop Saint Leander of Seville taught the trivium and quadrivium, the classic liberal arts. Saint Isidore applied himself to study diligently enough that he quickly mastered at least a pedestrian level of Latin,^[4] a smattering of Greek, and some Hebrew.

Two centuries of Gothic control of Iberia incrementally suppressed the ancient institutions, classic learning, and manners of the Roman Empire. The associated culture entered a period of long-term decline. The ruling Visigoths nevertheless showed some respect for the outward trappings of Roman culture. The heresy of Arianism meanwhile took deep root among the Visigoths as the original form of Christianity that they received.

Scholars may debate whether Isidore ever personally embraced monastic life or affiliated with any religious order, but he undoubtedly esteemed the monks highly.

Bishop of Seville

Statue of Isidore of Seville by José Alcoverro, outside of the Biblioteca Nacional de España, in Madrid.

After the death of Saint Leander of Seville on 13 March 600 or 601, Saint Isidore succeeded to the See of Seville. On his elevation to the episcopate, he immediately constituted himself as protector of monks.

Saint Isidore recognized that the spiritual and material welfare of the people of his See depended on assimilation of remnant Roman and ruling barbarian cultures; he consequently attempted to weld the peoples and subcultures of the Visigothic kingdom into a united nation. He used all available religious resources toward this end and succeeded completely. He practically eradicated the heresy of Arianism and completely stifled the new heresy of Acephali at its very outset. Archbishop Isidore strengthened religious discipline throughout his See.

Archbishop Isidore also used resources of education to counteract increasingly influential Gothic barbarism throughout his episcopal jurisdiction. His quickening spirit animated the educational movement centered on Seville. Saint Isidore introduced Aristotle to his countrymen long before the Arabs studied Greek philosophy extensively.

In 619, Saint Isidore of Seville pronounced anathema against any ecclesiastic who in any way should molest the monasteries and children.

Second Synod of Seville (November 618 or 619)

In great part due to the enlightened statecraft of his two brothers, the Councils of Seville and Toledo emanated Visigothic legislation; modern historians regard this legislation as exercising a most important influence on the beginnings of representative government.

Saint Isidore presided over the Second Council of Seville, begun on 13 November 619, in the reign of King Sisebut. The bishops of Gaul and Narbonne and the Hispanic prelates all attended. The Acts of the Council fully set forth the nature of Christ, countering Arian conceptions.

Fourth National Council of Toledo

All bishops of Hispania attended the Fourth National Council of Toledo, begun on 5 December 633. The aged Archbishop Saint Isidore presided over its deliberations and originated of most enactments of the council.

Saint Isidore used this opportunity to serve his country greatly. Through his influence, this Council of Toledo promulgated a decree, commanding all bishops to establish seminaries in their cathedral cities along the lines of the cathedral school at Seville, which educated Saint Isidore decades earlier. The decree prescribed the study of Greek, Hebrew, and the liberal arts and encouraged interest in law and medicine.^[5] The authority of the Council made this education policy obligatory upon all bishops of the Kingdom of the Visigoths.

The council probably expressed with tolerable accuracy the mind and influence of Isidore. The council granted remarkable position and deference granted to the king of the Visigoths. The free and independent Church bound itself in solemn allegiance to the acknowledged king; it said nothing of allegiance to the Bishop of Rome.

Legacy

Saint Isidore attempted to compile a summa of universal knowledge. This encyclopedia epitomized all ancient and contemporary learning. It preserves many fragments of classical learning, otherwise hopelessly lost. The fame of this work imparted a new impetus to encyclopedic writing, which bore abundant fruit in the subsequent centuries of the Middle Ages. Saint Isidore of Seville died on 4 April 636 after serving more than three decades as archbishop of Seville.

Works

Isidore's Latin style in the Etymologiae and elsewhere, though simple and lucid but not classical style, revealing increasing local Visigothic traditions. It discloses most of the imperfections peculiar to all ages of transition and particularly reveals a growing Visigothic influence. Saint Isidore wrote a total of 1640 Spanish words in his surviving works.

Etymologiae

Page of Etymologiae, Carolingian manuscript (8th century), Brussels, Royal Library of Belgium

Isidore was the first Christian writer to essay the task of compiling for his co-religionists a summa of universal knowledge, in the form of his most important work, the Etymologiae (taking its title from the method he uncritically used in the transcription of his era's knowledge). It is also known by classicists as the Origines (the standard abbreviation being Orig.). This encyclopedia — the first such Christian epitome — formed a huge compilation of 448 chapters in 20 volumes. In it, as Isidore entered his own terse digest of Roman handbooks, miscellanies and compendia, he continued the trend towards abridgements and summaries that had characterised Roman learning in Late Antiquity. In the process, many fragments of classical learning are preserved which otherwise would have been hopelessly lost; "in fact, in the majority of his works, including the Origines, he contributes little more than the mortar which connects excerpts from other authors, as if he was aware of his deficiencies and had more confidence in the stilus maiorum than his own" his translator Katherine Nell MacFarlane remarks;^[6] on the other hand, some of these fragments were lost in the first place because Isidore’s work was so highly regarded — Braulio called it quecunque fere sciri debentur, "practically everything that it is necessary to know"—^[7] that it superseded the use of many individual works of the classics themselves, which were not recopied and have therefore been lost: "all secular knowledge that was of use to the Christian scholar had been winnowed out and contained in one handy volume; the scholar need search no further".^[8]

The fame of this work imparted a new impetus to encyclopedic writing, which bore abundant fruit in the subsequent centuries of the Middle Ages. It was the most popular compendium in medieval libraries. It was printed in at least 10 editions between 1470 and 1530, showing Isidore's continued popularity in the Renaissance. Until the 12th century brought translations from Arabic sources, Isidore transmitted what western Europeans remembered of the works of Aristotle and other Greeks, although he understood only a limited amount of Greek. The Etymologiae was much copied, particularly into medieval bestiaries.

Other works

His other works, all in Latin, include:

• Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum (a history of the Gothic, Vandal and Suebi kings)
• his Chronica Majora (a universal history)
• De differentiis verborum, which amounts to brief theological treatise on the doctrine of the Trinity, the nature of Christ, of Paradise, angels, and men.
• On the Nature of Things (a book of astronomy and natural history dedicated to the Visigothic king Sisebut)
• Questions on the Old Testament.
• a mystical treatise on the allegorical meanings of numbers
• a number of brief letters
• Sententiae libri tres Codex Sang. 228; 9th century^[11]
• De viris illustribus
• De ecclesiasticis officiis

Legacy

Isidore (right) and Braulio (left) in an Ottonian illuminated manuscript from the 2nd half of the 10th century.

Isidore was one of the last of the ancient Christian philosophers; he was the last of the great Latin Church Fathers and was contemporary with Maximus the Confessor. Some consider him to be the most learned man of his age, and he exercised a far-reaching and immeasurable influence on the educational life of the Middle Ages. His contemporary and friend, Braulio of Zaragoza, regarded him as a man raised up by God to save the Iberian peoples from the tidal wave of barbarism that threatened to inundate the ancient civilization of Hispania. The Eighth Council of Toledo (653) recorded its admiration of his character in these glowing terms: "The extraordinary doctor, the latest ornament of the Catholic Church, the most learned man of the latter ages, always to be named with reverence, Isidore". This tribute was endorsed by the Fifteenth Council of Toledo, held in 688.

Isidore was interred in Seville. His tomb represented an important place of veneration for the Mozarabs during the initial centuries following the Arab conquest of Visigothic Hispania. In the middle of the 11th century, with the division of Al Andalus into taifas and the strengthening of the Christian holdings in the Iberian peninsula, Fernando I of León found himself in a position to extract tribute from the fractured Arab states. In addition to money, Abbad II al-Mu'tadid, the Abbadid rule of Seville (1042–1069), agreed to turn over St. Isidore's remains to Fernando I. A Catholic poet described al-Mutatid placing a brocaded cover over Isidore's sarcophagus, and remarked, "Now you are leaving here, revered Isidore. You know well how much your fame was mine!" Fernando had Isidore's remains reinterred in the then recently constructed Basilica of San Isidoro in Leon.

He was canonized a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in 1598 by Pope Clement VIII and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1722 by Pope Innocent XIII.

In Dante's Paradise (X.130), he is mentioned among theologians and Doctors of the Church alongside the Scot Richard of St. Victor and the Englishman Bede the Venerable.

In the mid 2000s he was declared the patron saint of the Internet by the Vatican.^[12][13] He is also the patron saint of computers, computer users, and computer technicians.^[14] The University of Dayton has named their implementation of the Sakai Project in honor of Saint Isidore.^[15]

An important part of his bones was buried in the cathedral of Murcia (Spain), where they are currently venerated.

References

1. ^ Montalembert, Charles F. Les Moines d'Occident depuis Saint Benoît jusqu'à Saint Bernard [The Monks of the West from Saint Benoit to Saint Bernard]. Paris: J. Lecoffre, 1860.
2. ^ Jacques Fontaine, Isidore de Séville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne wisigothique (Paris) 1959
3. ^ Roger Collins, Early Medieval Spain. New York: St Martin's Press, 1995, pp. 79-86.
4. ^ "His literary style, though lucid, is pedestrian": Katherine Nell MacFarlane's observation, in "Isidore of Seville on the Pagan Gods (Origines VIII. 11)", Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, 70.3 (1980):1-40, p. 4, reflects mainstream secular opinion.
5. ^ Isidore's own work regarding medicine is examined by William D. Sharpe, Isidore of Seville: The Medical Writings (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 54.2) 1964.
6. ^ MacFarlane 1980:4; MacFarlane translates Etymologiae viii.
7. ^ Braulio, Elogium of Isidore appended to Isidore's De viris illustribus, heavily indebted itself to Jerome.
8. ^ MacFarlane 1980:4.
9. ^ Cohen, Jeremy (1999). Living Letters of the Law. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-520-21870-3., books.google.com
10. ^ Bar-Shava Albert (1990). "Isidore of Seville: His attitude towards Judaism and his impact on early Medieval Canonical law". The Jewish Quarterly Review. XXX 3,4: 207–220. JSTOR 1454969.
11. ^ Cesg.unifr.ch
12. ^ Legon, Jeordan (31 January 2003). "Bishops seek saint for Internet". CNN.com. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
13. ^ "Patron Saint of Internet Shines in New Data Center at Boston College". The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2 December 2006. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
14. ^ Jones, Terry H. "Saint Isidore of Seville". Retrieved 5 January 2012.
15. ^ Isidore.udayton.edu

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Featured Items Panel from Litany Lane

 

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Today's Snippet I:   Seville, Spain

Seville  is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville, Spain. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir. The inhabitants of the city are known as sevillanos (feminine form: sevillanas) or hispalenses, after the Roman name of the city, Hispalis. Seville has a municipal population of about 703,000 as of 2011, and a metropolitan population of about 1.5 million, making it the fourth-largest city in Spain and the 30th most populous municipality in the European Union. Its Old Town, the third largest in Europe with an area of 4 km², contains three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Alcázar palace complex, the Cathedral and the General Archive of the Indies. The Seville harbour, located about 80 km from the Atlantic Ocean, is the only river port in Spain.

Seville was founded as the Roman city of Hispalis, and was known as Ishbiliya  after the Muslim conquest in 712. During the Muslim rule in Spain, Seville came under the jurisdiction of the Caliphate of Córdoba before becoming the independent Taifa of Seville; later it was ruled by the Muslim Almoravids and the Almohads until finally being incorporated into the Christian Kingdom of Castile under Ferdinand III in 1248.

After the discovery of the Americas, Seville became one of the economic centres of the Spanish Empire as its port monopolised the trans-oceanic trade and the Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) wielded its power, opening a Golden Age of arts and literature. In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan departed from Seville for the first circumnavigation of the Earth. Coinciding with the Baroque period of European history, the 17th century in Seville represented the most brilliant flowering of the city's culture; then began a gradual economic and demographic decline as silting in the Guadalquivir forced the trade monopoly to relocate to the nearby port of Cádiz.

The 20th century in Seville saw the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, decisive cultural milestones such as the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 and Expo'92, and the city's election as the capital of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia.

Name

Etymology

Spal is the oldest known name for Seville. It appears to have originated during the Phoenician colonisation of the Tartessian culture in south-western Iberia, and according to Manuel Pellicer Catalán meant "lowland" in the Phoenician language (similar to the Hebrew Shfela). During Roman rule, the name was Latinised as Hispalis. After the Moorish invasion, this name evolved into Ishbiliyya  since "p" does not exist in Arabic, the Latin place-name suffix -is was substituted for its direct Arabic equivalent -iyya, and stressed "a" /æ/ turned into "i" /i/, due to the phonetic phenomenon called imela. Seville's English and Spanish names derive from Ishbiliyya.

Motto

"NO8DO" is the official motto of Seville. It is popularly believed to be a rebus signifying the Spanish "No me ha dejado", meaning "It [Seville] has not abandoned me", with the eight in the middle representing a madeja, or skein of wool. Legend states that the title was given by King Alfonso X, who was resident in the city's Alcazar and supported by the citizens when his son, later Sancho IV of Castille, tried to unsurp him from the throne. In reality, the motto is most likely an abbreviation of the Latin In Nomine Domini ("in the name of the Lord"), though the popularity of the rebus and its accompanying legend has obscured these origins. The emblem is present on the municipal flag and features on city property such as manhole covers, and Christopher Columbus's tomb in the Cathedral.

History

Seville is approximately 2,200 years old. The passage of the various civilisations instrumental in its growth has left the city with a distinct personality, and a large and well-preserved historical centre. Although it has a strong mediaeval, renaissance and baroque heritage, the city was greatly influenced by Arabic culture.

Early periods

The Giralda view from the Patio de Banderas (Courtyard of Flags), historic square with remains of Roman, Moorish and Castilian periods.

The mythological founder of the city is Hercules (Heracles), commonly identified with the Phoenician god Melqart, who the myth says sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar to the Atlantic, and founded trading posts at the current sites of Cadiz and of Seville.

The city was known from Roman times as Hispalis. Important archaeological remains also exist in the nearby towns of Santiponce (Italica) and Carmona.

Existing Roman features in Seville include the remnants of an aqueduct, a temple in Mármoles Street, the columns of La Alameda de Hércules, the remains exposed in situ in the underground Antiquarium of the Metropol Parasol building and the remains in the Patio de Banderas square near of the Seville Cathedral. The walls surrounding the city were originally built during the rule of Julius Caesar, but their current course and design were the result of Moorish reconstructions.

Following Roman rule, there were successive conquests of the Roman province of Hispania Baetica by the Vandals and the Visigoths during the 5th and 6th centuries.

Moorish era

Seville was taken by the Moors, Muslims from the North of Africa, during the conquest of Hispalis in 712. It was the capital for the kings of the Umayyad Caliphate, the Almoravid dynasty first and after the Almohad dynasty (from Arabic الموحدون al-Muwahhidun, i.e., "the monotheists" or "the Unitarians"), from the 8th to 13th centuries.

The Moorish urban influences continued and are present in contemporary Seville, for instance in the custom of decorating with herbaje and small fountains the courtyards of the houses. However, most buildings of the Moorish aesthetic actually belong to the Mudéjar style of Islamic art, developed under Christian rule and inspired by the Arabic style. Original Moorish buildings are the Patio del Yeso in the Alcázar, the city walls, and the main section of the Giralda, bell tower of the Seville Cathedral.

Castilian rule

Hall of Ambassadors in the Alcázar of Seville

In 1247, the Christian King Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon began the conquest of Andalusia. After conquering Jaén and Córdoba, he seized the villages surrounding the city, Carmona Lora del Rio and Alcalá del Rio, and kept a standing army in the vicinity, the siege lasting for fifteen months. The decisive action took place in May 1248 when Ramon Bonifaz sailed up the Guadalquivir and severed the Triana bridge that made the provisioning of the city from the farms of the Aljarafe possible. The city surrendered on 23 November 1248.

The city's development continued after the Castilian conquest in 1248. Public buildings constructed including churches, many of which were built in the Mudéjar style, and the Seville Cathedral, built during the 15th century with Gothic architecture. The Moors' Palace became the Castilian royal residence, and during Pedro I's rule it was replaced by the Alcázar (the upper levels are still used by the Royal Family as the official Seville residence).

In 1391, Archdeacon Ferrant Martinez closed all the synagogues in Seville, converting them to churches, as in the case of Santa María la Blanca, and also appropriated the Jewish quarter's land and shops (sited in modern-day 'Barrio Santa Cruz'). Thousands were killed during the pogrom, while others were forced to convert. The Plaza de San Francisco was the site of the 'autos de fé'. At first, the activity of the Inquisition was limited to the dioceses of Seville and Cordoba, where Alonso de Hojeda had detected converso activity. The first Auto de Fé took place in Seville on 6 February 1481, when six people were burned alive. Alonso de Hojeda himself gave the sermon. The Inquisition then grew rapidly. By 1492, tribunals existed in eight Castilian cities: Ávila, Cordoba, Jaén, Medina del Campo, Segovia, Sigüenza, Toledo and Valladolid.

The Golden Age

Seville in the 16th century

Following the 1492 Christopher Columbus expedition to the New World (from Palos de la Frontera's port), the results from his claiming territory and trade for the Crown of Castile (incipient Spain) in the West Indies began to profit the city, as all goods imported from the New World had to pass through the Casa de Contratacion before being distributed throughout the rest of Spain.

A 'golden age of development' commenced in Seville, due to its being the only port awarded the royal monopoly for trade with the growing Spanish colonies in the Americas and the influx of riches from them. Since only sailing ships leaving from and returning to the inland port of Seville could engage in trade with the Spanish Americas, merchants from Europe and other trade centers needed to go to Seville to acquire New World trade goods.

The city's population grew to nearly a million people.In the late 16th century the monopoly was broken, with the port of Cádiz also authorised as a port of trade. The Great Plague of Seville in 1649 reduced the population by almost half, and it would not recover until the early 19th century. By the 18th century its international importance was in decline. After the silting up of the harbor by the Guadalquivir (river), upriver shipping ceased and the city went into relative economic decline.

The writer Miguel de Cervantes lived primarily in Seville between 1596 and 1600. Because of financial problems, Cervantes worked as a purveyor for the Spanish Armada, and later as a tax collector. In 1597, discrepancies in his accounts of the three years previous landed him in the Royal Prison of Seville for a short time. Rinconete y Cortadillo, a popular comedy among his works, features two young vagabonds who come to Seville, attracted by the riches and disorder that the 16th-century commerce with the Americas had brought to that metropolis.

18th century

Royal Tobacco Factory, today rectorate of the University of Seville.

During the 18th century Charles III of Spain promoted Seville's industrialisation. Construction of the Royal Tobacco Factory (Real Fábrica de Tabacos) began in 1728 and proceeded intermittently for the next 30 years. At the time it was the second largest building in Spain, after the royal residence El Escorial. Since the 1950s it has been the seat of the rectorate of the University of Seville.

Many operas have been set in the city, including those by such composers as Beethoven (Fidelio), Mozart (The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni), Rossini (The Barber of Seville) and Bizet "(Carmen)".

Seville became the dean of the Spanish provincial press in 1758 with the publication of its first newspaper, the Hebdomario útil de Seville, the first to be printed in Spain outside Madrid.

19th and 20th centuries

The Isabel II bridge, better known as the Triana Bridge

Between 1825 and 1833 Melchor Cano acted as chief architect in Seville, most of the urban planning policy and architectural modifications of the city were made by him and his collaborator Jose Manuel Arjona y Cuba.

Industrial architecture surviving today from the first half of the 19th century includes the ceramics factory installed in the Carthusian monastery at La Cartuja in 1841 by the Pickman family, and now home to the El Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), which manages the collections of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Sevilla. It also houses the rectory of the UNIA.

In the years that Queen Isabel II ruled directly, about 1843–1868, the Sevillian bourgeoisie invested in a construction boom unmatched in the city's history. The Isabel II bridge, better known as the Triana bridge, dates from this period; street lighting was expanded in the municipality and most of the streets were paved during this time as well.

By the second half of the 19th century Seville began an expansion supported by railway construction and the demolition of part of its ancient walls, allowing the urban space of the city to grow eastward and southward. The Sevillana de Electricidad Company was created in 1894 to provide electric power throughout the municipality, and in 1901 the Plaza de Armas railway station was inaugurated. The Museum of Fine Arts (Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla) opened in 1904.

In 1929 the city hosted the Ibero-American Exposition, which accelerated the southern expansion of the city and created new public spaces such as the Plaza de España and the Maria Luisa Park. Not long before the opening, the Spanish government began a modernisation of the city in order to prepare for the expected crowds by erecting new hotels and widening the mediaeval streets to allow for the movement of automobiles.

Seville fell very quickly at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. General Queipo de Llano carried out a coup within the city, quickly capturing the city centre. Radio Seville opposed the uprising and called for the peasants to come to the city for arms, while workers' groups established barricades. De Llano then moved to capture Radio Seville, which he used to broadcast propaganda on behalf of the Franquist forces. After the initial takeover of the city, resistance continued among the working-class areas for some time, until a series of fierce reprisals took place.

Alamillo Bridge, built for Universal Expoof Seville

Under Francisco Franco's rule Spain was officially neutral in World War II, and like the rest of the country, Seville remained largely economically and culturally isolated from the outside world. In 1953 the shipyard of Seville was opened, eventually employing more than 2,000 workers in the 1970s. Before the existence of wetlands regulation in the Guadalquivir basin, Seville suffered regular heavy flooding; perhaps worst of all were the floods that occurred in November 1961 when the river Tamarguillo overflowed as a result of a prodigious downpour of rain, and Seville was consequently declared a disaster zone.

Trade unionism in Seville began during the 1960s with the underground organisational activities of the Workers' Commissions or Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), in factories such as Hytasa, the Astilleros shipyards, Hispano Aviación, etc. Several of the movement's leaders were imprisoned in November 1973. On 3 April 1979 Spain held its first democratic municipal elections after the end of Franco's dictatorship; councillors representing four different political parties were elected in Seville. On 5 November 1982, Pope John Paul II arrived in Seville to officiate at a Mass before more than half a million people at the fairgrounds. He visited the city again 13 June 1993, for the International Eucharistic Congress.

In 1992, coinciding with the fifth centenary of the Discovery of the Americas, the Universal Exposition was held for six months in Seville, on the occasion of which the local communications network infrastructure was greatly improved: the SE-30 beltway around the city was completed and new highways were constructed; the new Santa Justa train station had opened in 1991, while the Spanish High Speed Rail system, the Alta Velocidad Española (AVE), began to operate between Madrid-Seville. The Seville Airport, (Aeropuerto de Sevilla), was expanded with a new terminal building designed by the architect Rafael Moneo, and various other improvements were made. The monumental Puente del Alamillo (Alamillo Bridge) over the Guadalquivir, designed by the architect Santiago Calatrava, was built to allow access to the island of La Cartuja, site of the massive exposition.

Some of the installations remaining at the site after the exposition were converted into the Scientific and Technological Park Cartuja 93.

Main sights

The Alcázar, the Cathedral, and the Archivo General de Indias (General Archive of the Indies) are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Landmarks

South façade of the Cathedral of St. Mary of Seville.

The Giralda

The Cathedral of St. Mary was built from 1401–1519 after the Reconquista on the former site of the city's mosque. It is among the largest of all medieval and Gothic cathedrals, in terms of both area and volume. The interior is the longest nave in Spain, and is lavishly decorated, with a large quantity of gold evident. The Cathedral reused some columns and elements from the mosque, and, most famously, the Giralda, originally a minaret, was converted into a bell tower. It is topped with a statue, known locally as El Giraldillo, representing Faith. The tower's interior was built with ramps rather than stairs, to allow the Muezzin and others to ride on horseback to the top.

Courtyard of the Maidens in the Alcázar of Seville

The Alcázar facing the cathedral was developed from a previous Moorish Palace. Construction was started in 1181 and continued for over 500 years, mainly in the Mudéjar style, but also in the Renaissance style. Its gardens are a blend of Moorish, Renaissance, and English traditions.

General Archives of the Indies

Torre del Oro (The Gold Tower) and the Guadalquivir River.

The Torre del Oro was built by the Almohad dynasty as a watchtower and defensive barrier on the river. A chain was strung through the water from the base of the tower to prevent boats from traveling into the river port.

The City Hall was built in the 16th century in high Plateresque style by master architect Diego de Riaño. The façade to Plaza Nueva was built in the 19th century in Neoclassical style.

The Palace of San Telmo, formerly the University of Sailors, and later the Seminary, is now the seat for the Andalusian Autonomous Government. It is one of the most emblematic buildings of baroque architecture, mainly to its world-renowned churrigueresque principal façade and the impressive chapel.

The Royal Tobacco Factory is housed on the original site of the first tobacco factory in Europe, a vast 18th century building in Baroque style and the purported inspiration for the opera Carmen.

The Metropol Parasol, in La Encarnación square, is the world's largest wooden structure. A monumental umbrella-like building designed by the German architect Jürgen Mayer, finished in 2011. This modern architecture structure houses the central market and an underground archaeological complex. The terrace roof is a city viewpoint.

The General Archive of the Indies, is the repository of extremely valuable archival documents illustrating the history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and the Philippines. The building itself, an unusually serene and Italianate example of Spanish Renaissance architecture, was designed by Juan de Herrera

The Plaza de España, in Maria Luisa Park (Parque de Maria Luisa), was built by the architect Aníbal González for the 1929 Exposición Ibero-Americana. It is an outstanding example of Regionalist Revival Architecture, a bizarre and loftily conceived mixture of diverse historic styles, such as Art Deco and Neo-Mudéjar and lavishly ornamented with typical glazed tiles.

The neighbourhood of Triana, situated on the west bank of the Guadalquivir River, played an important role in the history of the city and constitutes by itself a folk, monumental and cultural center.

On the other hand, La Macarena neighbourhood is located on the northern side of the city center. It contains some important monuments and religious buildings, such as the Museum and Basilica of La Macarena or the Hospital de las Cinco Llagas.

 

Museums

Navigation Pavilion, of the Expo 92, today the Navigation Museum.

Museum of Fine Arts of Seville

The most important art collection of Seville is the Museum of Fine Arts of Seville. It was established in 1835 in the former Convent of La Merced. It holds many masterworks by Murillo, Pacheco, Zurbarán, Valdés Leal, and others masters of the Baroque Sevillian School, containing also Flemish paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Other museums in Seville are:

• The Archaeological Museum, which contains collections from the Tartessian and Roman periods, placed in América square at María Luisa Park.
• The Museum of Arts and Traditions, also in América square, in front of the Archaeological museum.
• The Andalusian Contemporary Art Center, placed in La Cartuja.
• The Naval Museum, housed in the Torre del Oro, next to the Guadalquivir river.
• The Carriages Museum, in Los Remedios neighbourhood.
• The Flamenco Art Museum
• The Bullfight Museum, in La Maestranza bullring
• The Palace of the Countess of Lebrija, a private collection that contains many of the mosaic floors discovered in the nearby Roman town of Italica.
• The "Centro Velázquez" (Velázquez Center) located at the Old Priests Hospital in the turistic Santa Cruz neighbourhood.
• The Antiquarium at Metropol Parasol, an underground museum that exhibits in situ Roman and Muslim remains.
• The Castillo de San Jorge (Castle of St. George) remains, below the Triana market, next to Isabel II bridge. It was the last seat for the Spanish Inquisition.
• The Museum and Treasure of La Macarena, where the collection of the Macarena brotherhood is exhibited. This exhibition gives visitors an accurate impression about the Seville Holy Week.

 

Parks and gardens

Columbus monument in The Gardens of Murillo

The American Garden, also completed for Expo '92, is in La Cartuja. It is a public botanical garden, with a representative collection of American plants donated by different countries on the occasion of the world exposition. 

 

A shadehouse for shade-loving plants, and the cactus and palms collections are the best features of the garden.

Although it is not properly a park, most of the Guadalquivir's banks constitute a linear string of parks and green areas from "Delicias" bridge to the Parque del Alamillo.

The Chapina green, between the Plaza de Armas bus station and the Isabel II bridge, offers a panoramic view of the Triana old quarter neighbourhood, and is a popular zone for relaxing and sunbathing. La Cartuja's rivershore has a well-developed shady river forest, panoramic piers, and floating walkways.

Other prominent parks and gardens include:

• Jardines de Cristina, Romantic gardens built at 1830 in Puerta Jerez, close to the Cathedral and Alcázar, are named after King Ferdinand VII's second wife María Cristina. After the 2011 restoration, they were dedicated to the Generation of '27 poets.
• Parque de los Príncipes, the second oldest park in the city, built in 1973 in the Los Remedios neighbourhood.
• Parque de Miraflores, the second largest park of Seville, on the NE side of the city. It houses an area of traditional vegetable gardens, and several ancient farm buildings dating from Roman and Moorish times.
•  
• Jardines de la Buhaira, in Nervión neighbourhood. It was modified at the end of 20th century, inspired by traditional farm-gardening. The irrigation channels and the reservoir are original Moorish remains.
• Jardines del Valle, on the northeast side of the city center. Developed from the vegetable gardens of an old monastery. Here is found a well-preserved stretch of the Almohad City Wall.
• Jardines del Guadalquivir, in La Cartuja, a modern-art garden built for Expo '92 within the exhibition site as a resting area.
• Parque Amate is a park in the East of the city which opened in 1987. It has an area of 3444451.333 ft². It has a sport center with swimming pool and a small bullring.
• Parque del Tamarguillo is a periurban park on the North-East of the City. It was created in 2010 and it's close to the stream Tamarguillo.
•  Isla Mágica, on La Cartuja is an amusement and thematic park, with dozens of attractions just to the west of Seville. It was built on the site of Expo'92.

Culture

Festivals

Jesus of the Great Power (Juan de Mesa, 1620), in the Holy Week Madrugá

The Semana Santa (Holy Week) and the Feria de Sevilla (Seville Fair), also known as Feria de Abril (April Fair), are the two most well-known of Seville's festivals. Seville is internationally renowned for the solemn but decorative processions during Holy Week and the colourful and lively fair held two weeks after. 

During the Feria, families, businesses and organisations set up casetas (marquees) in which they spend the week dancing, drinking, and socialising. Traditionally, women wear elaborate flamenco dresses and men dress in their best suits. The marquees are set up on a permanent fairground in the district of Los Remedios, in which each street is named after a famous bullfighter.

Gastronomy

Andalusian Gazpacho

The tapas scene is one of the main cultural attractions of the city: people go from one bar to another, enjoying small dishes called tapas (literally "lids" or "covers" in Spanish, referring to their probable origin as snacks served in small plates used to cover drinks.) Local specialities include fried and grilled seafood (including squid, choco (cuttlefish), swordfish, marinated dogfish, and ortiguillas), grilled and stewed meat, spinach with chickpeas, Jamón ibérico, lamb kidneys in sherry sauce, snails, caldo de puchero, and gazpacho. A sandwich known as serranito is the typical and popular version of fast food.

Typical desserts from Seville include pestiños, a honey-coated sweet fritter; torrijas, fried slices of bread with honey; roscos fritos, deep-fried sugar-coated ring doughnuts; magdalenas or fairy cakes; yemas de San Leandro^, which provide the city's convents with a source of revenue; and tortas de aceite, a thin sugar-coated cake made with olive oil. Polvorones and mantecados are traditional Christmas products, whereas pestiños and torrijas are typically consumed during the Holy Week.

Bitter Seville oranges grow on trees lining the city streets. Formerly, large quantities were collected and exported to Britain to be used in marmalade. Today the fruit is used predominantly as compost locally, rather than as a foodstuff. According to legend, the Arabs brought the bitter orange to Seville from East Asia via Iraq around the 10th century to beautify and perfume their patios and gardens, as well as to provide shade.^[35] The flowers of the tree are a source of neroli oil, commonly used in perfumery and in skin lotions for massage.

Music

Flamenco dancers

Seville had a vibrant rock music scene in the 1970s and 1980s with bands like Triana, Alameda and Smash, who fused Andalusia's traditional flamenco music with British-style progressive rock. The punk rock group Reincidentes and indie band Sr Chinarro, as well as singer Kiko Veneno, rose to prominence in the early 1990s. The city's music scene now features rap acts such as SFDK, Tote King, La Mala Rodríguez, and Dogma Crew. Seville's diverse music scene is reflected in the variety of its club-centred nightlife.

The city is also home to many theatres and performance spaces where classical music is performed, including Teatro Lope de Vega, Teatro La Maestranza, Teatro Central, the Real Alcazar Gardens and the Sala Joaquín Turina.

Despite its name, the sevillana dance, commonly presented as flamenco, is not thought to be of Sevillan origin. However, the folksongs called sevillanas are authentically Sevillan, as is the four-part dance performed with them. Seville, and most significantly, the western district of Triana, was a major centre of the development of flamenco.

 

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Catechism of the Catholic Church

Part Two: The Celebration of the Christian Mystery, 

Section Two: The Seven Sacraments of the Church 

Article 1:2:3 Sacrament of Baptism

SECTION TWO

THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH 

III. How is the Sacrament of Baptism Celebrated?

Christian Initiation

1229 From the time of the apostles, becoming a Christian has been accomplished by a journey and initiation in several stages. This journey can be covered rapidly or slowly, but certain essential elements will always have to be present: proclamation of the Word, acceptance of the Gospel entailing conversion, profession of faith, Baptism itself, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and admission to Eucharistic communion.

1230 This initiation has varied greatly through the centuries according to circumstances. In the first centuries of the Church, Christian initiation saw considerable development. A long period of catechumenate included a series of preparatory rites, which were liturgical landmarks along the path of catechumenal preparation and culminated in the celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation.

1231 Where infant Baptism has become the form in which this sacrament is usually celebrated, it has become a single act encapsulating the preparatory stages of Christian initiation in a very abridged way. By its very nature infant Baptism requires a post-baptismal catechumenate. Not only is there a need for instruction after Baptism, but also for the necessary flowering of baptismal grace in personal growth. the catechism has its proper place here.

1232 The second Vatican Council restored for the Latin Church "the catechumenate for adults, comprising several distinct steps."SC 64 The rites for these stages are to be found in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).Cf. RCIA (1972) The Council also gives permission that: "In mission countries, in addition to what is furnished by the Christian tradition, those elements of initiation rites may be admitted which are already in use among some peoples insofar as they can be adapted to the Christian ritual."SC 65; cf. SC 37-40

1233 Today in all the rites, Latin and Eastern, the Christian initiation of adults begins with their entry into the catechumenate and reaches its culmination in a single celebration of the three sacraments of initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist.Cf. AG 14; ⇒ CIC, cann. 851; ⇒ 865; ⇒ 866 In the Eastern rites the Christian initiation of infants also begins with Baptism followed immediately by Confirmation and the Eucharist, while in the Roman rite it is followed by years of catechesis before being completed later by Confirmation and the Eucharist, the summit of their Christian initiation.CIC, cann. 851, ⇒ 20; ⇒ 868

The mystagogy of the celebration

1234 The meaning and grace of the sacrament of Baptism are clearly seen in the rites of its celebration. By following the gestures and words of this celebration with attentive participation, the faithful are initiated into the riches this sacrament signifies and actually brings about in each newly baptized person.

1235 The sign of the cross, on the threshold of the celebration, marks with the imprint of Christ the one who is going to belong to him and signifies the grace of the redemption Christ won for us by his cross.

1236 The proclamation of the Word of God enlightens the candidates and the assembly with the revealed truth and elicits the response of faith, which is inseparable from Baptism. Indeed Baptism is "the sacrament of faith" in a particular way, since it is the sacramental entry into the life of faith.

1237 Since Baptism signifies liberation from sin and from its instigator the devil, one or more exorcisms are pronounced over the candidate. the celebrant then anoints him with the oil of catechumens, or lays his hands on him, and he explicitly renounces Satan. Thus prepared, he is able to confess the faith of the Church, to which he will be "entrusted" by Baptism.Rom 6:17

1238 The baptismal water is consecrated by a prayer of epiclesis (either at this moment or at the Easter Vigil). the Church asks God that through his Son the power of the Holy Spirit may be sent upon the water, so that those who will be baptized in it may be "born of water and the Spirit."Jn 3:5

1239 The essential rite of the sacrament follows: Baptism properly speaking. It signifies and actually brings about death to sin and entry into the life of the Most Holy Trinity through configuration to the Paschal mystery of Christ. Baptism is performed in the most expressive way by triple immersion in the baptismal water. However, from ancient times it has also been able to be conferred by pouring the water three times over the candidate's head.

1240 In the Latin Church this triple infusion is accompanied by the minister's words: "N., I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." In the Eastern liturgies the catechumen turns toward the East and the priest says: "The servant of God, N., is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." At the invocation of each person of the Most Holy Trinity, the priest immerses the candidate in the water and raises him up again.

1241 The anointing with sacred chrism, perfumed oil consecrated by the bishop, signifies the gift of the Holy Spirit to the newly baptized, who has become a Christian, that is, one "anointed" by the Holy Spirit, incorporated into Christ who is anointed priest, prophet, and king.RBC 62

1242 In the liturgy of the Eastern Churches, the post-baptismal anointing is the sacrament of Chrismation (Confirmation). In the Roman liturgy the post-baptismal anointing announces a second anointing with sacred chrism to be conferred later by the bishop Confirmation, which will as it were "confirm" and complete the baptismal anointing.

1243 The white garment symbolizes that the person baptized has "put on Christ,"Gal 3:27 has risen with Christ. the candle, lit from the Easter candle, signifies that Christ has enlightened the neophyte. In him the baptized are "the light of the world."Mt 5:14; cf. ⇒ Phil 2:15 The newly baptized is now, in the only Son, a child of God entitled to say the prayer of the children of God: "Our Father."

1244 First Holy Communion. Having become a child of God clothed with the wedding garment, the neophyte is admitted "to the marriage supper of the Lamb"Rev 19:9 and receives the food of the new life, the body and blood of Christ. the Eastern Churches maintain a lively awareness of the unity of Christian initiation by giving Holy Communion to all the newly baptized and confirmed, even little children, recalling the Lord's words: "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them."Mk 10 14 The Latin Church, which reserves admission to Holy Communion to those who have attained the age of reason, expresses the orientation of Baptism to the Eucharist by having the newly baptized child brought to the altar for the praying of the Our Father.

1245 The solemn blessing concludes the celebration of Baptism. At the Baptism of newborns the blessing of the mother occupies a special place.

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