Silence on the Saints: Isidore of Seville on the Cult of Confessors

Abstract: The argument is increasingly being made that there was less consensus on the cult of saints around the late antique Mediterranean than has previously been assumed. Scholars are finding that discussions around the ability of saints to perform miracles and their worthiness of commemoration continued into the sixth and seventh centuries at the highest levels of learned society. This article examines the views on the issue of Isidore of Seville (d. 636). Isidore's investment in the Christianization of the Iberian Peninsula and the central place he gave to religious professionals in that process, might lead us to imagine that he would have actively promoted confessor saints: bishops, monks, and other figures who were deemed worthy of sanctity thanks to their ascetic pursuits and religious leadership. Isidore is nevertheless vague on the question, his manipulation of the sources signaling potential skepticism that clerics in his midst could and should be venerated as saints. The high premium he put on saints as exemplars, combined with his awareness of the failings of his contemporaries, may explain why he was hesitant to promote their sanctity. His silence in turn could help explain the apparent lack of confessor saints commemorated in late antique Iberia.