St. Isidore the Farmer

Isidore the Farmer is a saint for whom the surviving biography is sparse but whose cult is large enough to demand serious attention. He was a farm labourer on an estate outside Madrid who died around 1130, was venerated locally for more than four centuries before any formal process of canonization was begun, and was finally raised to the altars in 1622 in a ceremony that simultaneously canonized Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, and Philip Neri. That company is worth pausing over: a simple Spanish farm worker placed alongside the founder of the Jesuits, the apostle to Asia, the great Carmelite mystic of Avila, and the apostle of Rome.

What secured Isidore's cause, or at least sustained the popular conviction about him across those four centuries, was the testimony of his neighbours and of those who had received his charity. He attended early Mass before going to the fields, a practice his employer Juan de Vargas initially resented until, as the tradition has it, he saw for himself that Isidore's portion of the estate was somehow better tended than the rest. The legend of the angels ploughing — that heavenly assistants completed the work while Isidore was at prayer — is reported without pressing its literal truth. More significant are the authenticated miracles later collected in support of the canonization process, including a healing of King Philip II of Spain that appears in well-documented accounts and that accelerated the cause.

The theological point is simple and need not be belaboured: that sanctity does not require learning, position, or conspicuous spiritual gifts; that the care of the poor, the uncomplaining labour, and the prayer offered in the early morning before the working day are a complete Christian life. Isidore's canonization in that company of extraordinary achievers is a deliberate signal from the Church about what holiness is and where it can be found.