ISIDORE THE FARMER

By: Ray Gene Bulan

Feast Day: May 15

Canonized: March 12, 1622
Beatified: May 2, 1619
The other farmhands thought Isidore was lazy and caused them
extra work. Like them, Isidore was a day laborer on a wealthy
estate in Madrid, Spain, about a thousand years ago. Because
Isidore took time to go to Mass before coming to work, the
other farmers thought they were doing some of his share of the
work. They didn’t like that. Little did they know that Isidore
did have some extra help, but it wasn’t them!

After hearing his farmhands complain about this praying

worker, the land owner, Juan de Vargas, went to see what the trouble was all about. To his surprise, he saw
two angels guiding the plow. If the angels weren’t doing all the plowing in Isidore’s absence, they stood
next to him and plowed alongside. This way Isidore did more than twice the work he could have on his
own, and while he was at Mass, his work was getting done, too. Juan believed in the miracle he saw, and
he and would come to see more in his lifetime. He believed that Isidore saved his daughter’s life. He also
believed that Isidore saved the life of a horse that was very important for the farming.

Whether or not all these miracles actually happened, we cannot know. But for sure we know that Isidore
was deeply devoted to God and showed many others how God is always by our side. Nothing got in the
way of his praying to God and worshiping.

Around the year 1070, Isidore was born to poor framers near Madrid in Spain. Although his family was
poor, they loved and served God. Isidore and his family believed that it was important to show love for God
by helping others. They often gave away what little they had because someone else needed it more. Isidore
had a special affection for animals. He fed and cared for them, too.

Isidore met a young woman, Maria Torribia, who also loved God deeply. They married and had a son, but
the child died unexpectedly. Maria and Isidore decided not to try to have any other children because they
thought God was calling them to a different kind of life. Although they always loved each other, they spent
their time caring for those in need and praising God. Maria also became a saint.

Isidore died in 1130 and was canonized in 1622. He and Maria are still very popular in Spain. The Spanish
have a dance that honors Isidore and Maria. They also have processions that are used to bless their fields
and animals. The Spanish believe that these two saints are very important to the success of their harvests.
He is often called St. Isidore the Farmer or St. Isidore the Laborer and is the patron saint of farmers in the
United States.
 St. Casimir
By: Ray Gene Bulan

Casimir was the third of thirteen children born to King Casimir IV of Poland and Grand Duke of
Lithuania, and Elizabeth of Habsburg, an Austrian princess, daughter of Emperor Albert II.
Casimir and two of his brothers studied under the historian Jonh Dlugosz, a man of great knowledge and
piety. Under the holy man, the young prince, already devout from infancy, embarked upon the pursuit of
sanctity. Giving himself up to devotion and mortification, he often spent part of the night in intense prayer
and meditation. Prince Casimir also had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
At the death of Casimir’s uncle, King Ladislaus of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus a Hungarian nobleman was
elected king.
In 1471, at the instance of a group of Hungarian noblemen, Casimir IV decided to advance his
fifteen-year-old son Casimir for the throne of Hungary. Both father and son participated in the endeavor. A
Polish army of 12,000 advanced on Buda, but the campaign was unsuccessful.
Returning to Poland, Casimir resumed his studies. The prince was known for his intelligence, capacity,
wisdom and charm. For four years, while his father was away in Lithuania, he administered Poland. Around
this time his father tried to arrange a marriage for him to Kunegunde of Austria, daughter of Frederick II,
but the prince refused, choosing to remain celibate.
Shortly after, the saintly prince succumbed to a severe attack of lung trouble. While on a journey
to Lithuania he died at the court of Grodno on March 4, 1484 at the age of twenty-six.
A miracle attributed to Prince Casimir in 1518 caused his brother Sigismund I to advance his cause for
canonization. During the Siege of Polotsk, Casimir appeared to the Lithuanian army and showed them
where to cross the Daugava River and relieve the city besieged by the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
Canonized in 1522 by Pope Adrian VI, St. Casimir is greatly revered in Poland.