<nettime> Saint Isidore of Seville as patron saint for cybernauts (fwd)

[sj@thing.net (Janos Sugar)]

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>
>Ecumenical News International
>ENI News Service
>21 January 1999
>
>Medieval Spanish saint is now a travelling companion for cybernauts
>ENI-99-0019
>
>Barcelona, 21 January (ENI)--If you think that at the end of the
>second Christian millennium the Roman Catholic practice of designating
>a patron saint for various professions has been abandoned, you are
>wrong.
>
>The church may soon appoint a special guardian for adepts of perhaps
>the most innovative creation of our times - the Internet and computer
>science. And the likely candidate was born more than 1400 years before
>the World Wide Web was created.
>
>At the request of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social
>Communication, an organisation called the Internet Observation
>Services (SOI) carried out an investigation to find the saint who best
>represents the interests of computer operators and "cybernauts"-
>addicts of the Internet.
>
>According to the Spanish correspondent of the Latin American and
>Caribbean Communications Agency, SOI's researchers decided that the
>most suitable patron saint was one of the church's leading
>intellectuals, Saint Isidore, Bishop of Seville, in Spain, born in
>556.
>
>For many centuries, Isidore has been seen as a man ahead of his time.
>He wrote a form of dictionary, called Etymologies, with a structure
>similar to what is now called a database. Like the World Wide Web,
>Etymologies put at the disposal of its readers massive amounts of
>knowledge. An encyclopedia in 20 volumes, it contained information on
>the seven liberal arts and subjects such as medicine, agriculture,
>architecture, the books and offices of the church, and other church
>subjects. It was an extremely popular reference work.
>
>According to the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Isidore
>"had a profound impact  upon the culture and educational practice of
>Western medieval Europe ... His works became a storehouse of knowledge
>freely utilised by innumerable medieval authors."  His influence was
>such that many centuries after his death he was declared a "Doctor of
>the Church", a title reserved for Christianity's intellectual elite.
>
>According to SOI, Isidore also took great pains to bring coherence to
>his work, to ensure that is was as complete as possible and that all
>elements were complementary.
>
>SOI also claimed that, like the Internet, the work of Saint Isidore
>was a bridge between one era and the next. The saint "was ahead of his
>time and was a cultural bridge between the Ancient World and the
>Middle Ages".  As a result, one of ISO's researchers said, "we feel
>similar to him as we are also on the dawn of a new stage in history".
>
>Isidore, the researcher added, was one of the principal participants
>of the church's Fourth Council of Toledo, held in 633. He was deeply
>interested in the training of clergy and was known for his kindness to
>the poor.Isidore died in April 636. [455 words]
>
>
>All articles (c) Ecumenical News International
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>provided ENI is acknowledged as the source.
>
>Ecumenical News International
>Tel: (41-22) 791 6087/6515 Fax: (41-22) 798 1346
>E-Mail: eni@eni.ch
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>
>
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