Saint Isidore experienced "huge difficulties" in "appropriately facing some very serious problems, for instance the relations with heretics and Jews": "a whole set of problems highlighted the Pope during today’s audience, in front of about 11 thousand devotees, dedicated to the bishop of Seville which "look very real even today, especially considering what is happening in some regions which are experiencing things that are very similar to those of the Iberian peninsula in that sixth century". To "better understand" Isidore, according to Benedict XVI, "we must bear in mind, above all, the complexity of the political situations of his time". Despite the "grief of exile" that he "had had to experience during his childhood", he was "imbued with apostolic enthusiasm", because "he felt excited at contributing to the forming of a people that at last was finding again its unity, both politically and religiously, after the providential conversion of the Visigoth heir to the throne, Ermenegild, from Arianism to Catholicism". (continued)” ” ” ” ” “
