Saint Isidore the Farmer

Feast day : 15 May

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Isidore, the Farmer, who lived during the period (AD 1080-1172) in Madrid, Spain. He was a married man and a poor humble farm labourer who lived a life devoted to God. He was known for his mercy, generosity and love for people as well as animals. He alongwith his God fearing wife Maria lived a very pious and holy life. He was beatified on May 2 1619 by Pope Paul V and canonized three years later by Pope Gregory XV alongwith Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Francis Xavier, Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint Philip Neri on March 12 1622. He is the patron saint of farmers, peasants, day labourers, brick layers and also of agriculture in general. He is also the patron saint of Madrid, the Spanish cities of Leon, Zaragoza and Seville. The US National Catholic Rural Life Conference honors him as its patron too.

Life in Madrid::

He was born into a poor family in Madrid and was christened with the name of St. Isidore of Seville. His parents were very devout and raised him to have devotion to God. He spent his entire life as a hired labourer in the service of a wealthy landowner in Madrid named Juan de Vargas. He later married Maria Torriba who was also a God fearing and devout Christian. They had one son who died at an early age unexpectedly. After this tragedy, they grew closer to God. As a couple they decided to live a chaste life from thereon. There were several miracles in their lives that were seen and testified to by the people who lived there. He lived a long virtuous life and died on May 15 1172.

Miracles:

He had the practice of rising early in the morning and attending Holy Mass. After Mass he would stay back longer in the Church and continue his prayers. This made him late for work at the farm and caused quite a stir among the other labourers who complained to his employer Juan de Vargas. Despite his odd reputation among the other labourers, Juan liked Isidore and his wife because they were very pious and holy. Besides this, Isidore’s work was always done exceptionally well. However, the complaints of the other labourers troubled him and so he decided to take up the matter with Isidore. The next day he rose early and followed Isidore secretly to the Church. He waited for the Mass to end. After Mass all the other attendees left the Church and as he peered inside the Church he found Isidore kneeling in prayer before the altar. Juan later reportedly said that whilst Isidore prayed he could hear beautiful voices singing something he had never heard before though there was no one else in the Church. This left him spell bound and he promptly returned back to his home without speaking to Isidore. A few days later he went to the fields and found the labourers were happy that he had ‘spoken’ to Isidore and resolved the matter. They said that Isidore was now the first to be on the fields to begin his work and had even doubled his plowings!!

Juan was taken aback because he had not spoken to Isidore. The next day again he secretly followed Isidore to Church and as the Holy Mass began he went to the fields to wait for him there. There to his surprise he found a lone worker plowing out the field with the oxen of Isidore in that early hour. As he approached the lone figure in the darkness and mist he found a strikingly handsome young man dressed in white, with hair more golden than the surrounding wheat and a face more radiant than the sun. He noticed that the man’s feet were not touching the ground. Despite this he did not feel any fear rather he was filled with a peace and joy in his soul that he had never experienced before. This was the guardian angel of Isidore doing his tasks whilst he prayed in Church. Just then the other workers began coming to the fields and when Juan looked around he did not find the young man! Isidore became more cherished to Juan after that incident. This became one of the several miracles that were recorded about the Saint during his lifetime.

He was known to be kind and generous to both humans and animals. Both he and his wife gave away generously from whatever little they had. On a snowy day Isidore found pigeons scratching the ground in vain for grains. He took pity on them and poured out half of his sack of wheat to the ground. However, when the bag was later measured it was full and produced double the measure of flour.
There are several such miracles that were reported during this life on earth and after his death as well.

After death:

After 40 years since his death, his body was exhumed and found to be in an incorruptible state. He is said to have appeared to Alfonso VIII of Castile, and to have shown him the hidden path by which he surprised the Moors and gained the victory of Las Navas de Tolosa, in 1212. When King Philip III of Spain was cured of a deadly disease after touching the relics of the saint, the king replaced the old reliquary with a costly silver one and instigated the process of his beatification.

In 1696, his relics were moved to the Royal Alcazar of Madrid to intervene on behalf of the health of Charles II of Spain. While there, the King's locksmith pulled a tooth from the body and gave it to the monarch, who slept with it under his pillow until his death. This was not the first, nor the last time his body was allegedly mutilated out of religious fervour. For example, it was reported one of the ladies in the court of Isabella I of Castile bit off one of his toes.

In 1760, his body was brought to the Royal Palace of Madrid during the illness of Maria Amalia of Saxony. In 1769, Charles III of Spain had the remains of Saint Isidore and his wife Maria relocated to the San Isidro Church, Madrid. The sepulchre has nine locks and only the King of Spain has the master key. The opening of the sepulchre must be performed by the Archbishop of Madrid and authorized by the King himself. Consequently, it has not been opened since 1985.