feast day: May 15
about:
- born: c. 1070, Madrid, Kingdom of Castile
- died: May 15, 1130 (aged 59) or 1172, Madrid, Kingdom of Castile
- patronage: farmers, laborers and rural communities
- real name: Isidro de Merlo y Quintana
- also known as Isidore the Farm Labourer (Spanish, San Isidro Labrador)
- was a Spanish farmworker known for his piety toward the poor and animals. He is the Catholic patron saint of farmers and of Madrid, and of La Ceiba, Honduras.
- The Spanish word labrador means someone who works the land, not a worker in general, which in Spanish would be obrero, or trabajador.
- For the greater part of his life he was employed as a laborer on a farm outside the city. Many marvelous happenings accompanied his lifelong work in the fields and continued long after his holy death. He was favored with celestial visions and, it is said, the angels sometimes helped him in his work in the fields. St. Isidore was canonized in 1622.
- He was in the service of a certain Juan de Vargas on a farm in the vicinity of Madrid. Every morning before going to work he was accustomed to hear a Mass at one of the churches in Madrid. One day his fellow-labourers complained to their master that Isidore was always late for work in the morning. Upon investigation, so runs the legend, the master found Isidore at prayer, while an angel was doing the ploughing for him. On another occasion his master saw an angel ploughing on either side of him, so that Isidore's work was equal to that of three of his fellow-labourers. Isidore is also said to have brought back to life the deceased daughter of his master and to have caused a fountain of fresh water to burst from the dry earth in order to quench the thirst of his master. He was married to Maria Torribia, a canonized saint, who is venerated in Spain as Maria della Cabeza, from the fact that her head (Spanish, cabeza) is often carried in procession especially in time of drought. They had one son, who died in his youth. On one occasion this son fell into a deep well and at the prayers of his parents the water of the well is said to have risen miraculously to the level of the ground, bringing the child with it, alive and well. Hereupon the parents made a vow of continence and lived in separate houses. Forty years after Isidore's death, his body was transferred from the cemetery to the church of St. Andrew. He is said to have appeared to Alfonso of Castile, and to have shown him the hidden path by which he surprised the Moors and gained the victory of Las Nevas de Tolosa, in 1212. When King Philip III of Spain was cured of a deadly disease by touching the relics of the saint, the king replaced the old reliquary by a costly silver one. He was canonized by Gregory XV, along with Sts. Ignatius, Francis Xavier, Teresa, and Philip Neri, on 12 March, 1622. St. Isidore is widely venerated as the patron of peasants and day-labourers. The cities of Madrid, Leon, Saragossa, and Seville also, honour him as their patron.
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PRAYER TO SAINT ISIDORE
source: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=353
God, through the intercession of St. Isidore, the holy Farmer, grant that we may overcome all feelings of pride. May we always serve You with that humility which pleases You, through his merits and example.
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links/ sources:
- "Isidore the Laborer" (Wikipedia):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isidore_the_Laborer
- "St. Isidore, the Farmer" (Catholic Online):
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=353
- "St. Isidore, the Farmer" (American Catholic):
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1384
- "Isidore the Labourer" (Catholic Encyclopedia):
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08189a.htm
- "St. Isidore the Farmer" (EWTN):
http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/I/stisidorethefarmer.asp