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Article: Patron saints for farmers.(NATION)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- November 9, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Farm workers have their choice when it comes to invoking patron saints.
The one most Catholics would probably recognize is St. Isidore (1070-1130), patron of farmers, peasants, day laborers and rural communities, and the patron of the United States National Rural Life Conference (not the same person as St. Isidore of Seville, a seventh-century bishop and patron of the Internet).
Isidore worked all his life as a farm laborer on an estate owned by a wealthy landowner outside Madrid. A simple man, Isidore prayed as he plowed the fields and was sometimes late because he went to morning Mass--but according to legend, angels helped him to make up his share of ...