MAY 18, 2008
TRINITY SUNDAY

DID YOU KNOW THAT THE PATRON SAINTS OF FARMERS & RURAL COMMUNITIES ARE

St. ISIDORE & St. MARIA?

Saint Isidore, a layman and farmer and his beloved wife, Saint Maria de la Cabeza are the patron saints of farmers and of rural communities. They lived in Madrid, Spain (1070-1130 A.D.). They were simple, poor farm laborers who worked for and on the estate of a wealthy landowner, John de Vergas. When their only son died young, they mutually agreed to serve God in perfect chastity and continence.

They devoted themselves to rise early and offer their day to God at daily mass. They spent their time on the fields in conversation with God, with their guardian angels or intercession with the saints. The local townsfolk brought their prayer needs to them and began to recognize before long that illnesses and other needs were miraculously being answered as a result of their prayers. Isidore and Maria kept very few earthly possessions and constantly shared their table with the poor and the beggars, eating only the scraps left over after the poor were fed. Even after their deaths many miracles were received through their intercession. Their lives are a model for simple everyday folks who aspire and are striving to find sanctity and holiness through ordinary lives lived with Godly purpose: finding joy and holiness through daily mass, fervent daily prayer and generous charity to those who are in need.

(Adapted from Butler’s Lives of Saints, Vol. 11, pp 323-324).

St. Isidore died May 15, 1130 and was declared a saint in 1622. St. Maria died around 1180 and shares a feast day with her husband on May 15. This holy couple’s holiness underscores that one does not need status or pompous power or property to be a saint. It exalts simplicity and physical labor as dignified before the Lord and emphasizes the primacy of the spiritual life over everything else.