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Rural Life Mass May 21 Near Groom
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May 16, 2023“There is no humanity without the cultivation for the land; there is no good life without the food it produces for the men and women of every continent. Agriculture thus demonstrates its central role.”
—Pope Francis
Jan. 31, 2015
Groom—A Rural Life Mass to note the Feast of Sts. Isidore and Maria is set for Sunday, May 21 at 1:00pm at the Harry and Morgan Haiduk Farm east/northeast of Groom, according to Father Shane D. Wieck, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church, Borger .
To get to the Harry and Morgan Haiduk farm from Amarillo, please take I-40 East 36 miles past Lakeside/Loop 335 to the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ at FM 295 (exit 112). Go eight miles north on FM 295 to FM 293, then three miles east on FM 293. Turn north on Haiduk Road, then go ½ mile north then ½ mile back west to the farm. There will be a very large group of trees in the middle of the section and there will be signs on the intersections of I-40, FM 295/293 and FM 293 and Haiduk Road.
According to the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, Sts. Isidore and Maria are the Patron Saints of Farmers. Isidore was born in 1070 to a peasant family near Madrid. He was baptized “Isidore” in honor of the famous archbishop of Seville.
Isidore the farmer was actually a day laborer, working on the farm of the wealthy John de Vergas at Torrelaguna, just outside Madrid. He married a poor girl, Maria Torribia. Their only child, a son, died in infancy.
The couple took a vow of continence to serve God. Isidore's life is a model of simple Christian charity and faith. He prayed while at work. He shared what he had with the poor, even his meals. He often gave them more than he had for himself.
A story told about St. Isidore, whose feast day is May 15, is that he often came later to work in the fields than other laborers because he would first attend Mass in the morning. Yet his work never suffered and he always met the chores required of him. It was said two angels, one on either side of Isidore, appeared and joined their pious companion in plowing the fields.
St. Maria, whose feast day is Sept. 14, always kept a pot of stew on the fireplace in their humble rural dwelling. She knew that her husband Isidore would often bring home anyone who was hungry. One day he brought home more hungry people than usual. After she served many of them, Maria told him that there simply was no more stew in the pot. He insisted that she check the pot again, and she was able to spoon out enough stew to feed them all.
In representations, St. Isidore is portrayed as a peasant with a sickle or staff, and sometimes with an angel or white oxen near him. He died in 1130 and was canonized in 1622.
After Isidore's death, Maria became a hermit, but she too performed miracles and merited after her death the name of "Santa Maria de la Cabeza,” meaning Head, because her head (conserved in a reliquary and carried in procession) has often brought rain from heaven for an afflicted dry countryside. Her remains are honored by all of Spain by pilgrimages and processions at Torrelaguna, where they were transferred in 1615. She was beatified in 1697.
