San Isidro labrador - Saint Isidore the farmer

Last year, on our way to Rome for the canonization of Monseñor Óscar Romero and five others, Padre German and I had a long stop-over in Madrid.

Knowing of his devotion to Saint Isidore, San Isidro Labrador, the patron of his home town, I found a way for us to get to the church of San Isidro.

We got there before the church opened and so we stopped for breakfast at a nearby coffee shop. That was a great experience since it was very clearly a neighborhood café. People came in who obviously knew each other and the employees. Some even returned their plates to the bar after they had visited their breakfast. The meal and the coffee were good, but even better was the experience of real life in a big city.

But the experience in the church was amazing. We got there and had a chance to look around and to pray. We attended Mass which just happened to be the feast of the Virgin of El Pilar, an important Spanish feast.

After Mass, we went to great the priest.

When he heard we were from afar and that Padre had a devotion to San Isidro, he arranged for a woman from the association of San Isidro to lead us to the tomb.

The tomb is above the high altar, but you can get close to the tomb and venerate it by a stairway behind the altar. There we had time to pray.

The woman shared with us any number of tales about the tomb – and how the last time the tomb was opened, about 1922, the body was found to be still incorrupt – decades after his death in 1130.

San Isidro Labrador and his wife, Santa María de la Cabeza, are venerated in Madrid and are also recognized throughout the world as patrons of farm laborers. They are also the patrons of the US National Catholic RuralLife Conference.

They show us the beauty and the worth of married life on the land, combing family, prayer, and hard work in the pursuit of holiness.

There are many tales about Saint Isidore, but there are several that celebrate his great generosity and the providence of God.

Once he was on his way to get some grain milled and saw some hungry birds. He shared part of his grain with them. When he arrived at the mill, his sack was full.

Another time, he brought home a large group of hungry people. His wife shared the stew she had prepared but was afraid that there would not be enough. Sure enough, God provided enough for all.

So today, mindful of the hard work of people on the land, I pray for all farm laborers, many of them my neighbors, as well as the many farmers throughout the world who, by the sweat of their brow, provide us with food.

Thank you, God, for them; provide them with what they need and give them a profound sense of the marvelous dignity of their labor.

--> Saint Isidore and Saint María, pray for us, and for all who work the land.

Saint isidore and Honduran farmers

San Isidro Labrador, 

ponga la lluvia 

y quite el sol. 

Saint Isidore the Laborer,
bring on the rains
and turn off the heat. 

a very free translation 

 Today is the feast of Saint Isidore the Farm Laborer and is celebrated, especially in rural areas, throughout the world – especially in Latin America and in the US. Here people pray for rain and for an end of the dry season.

Today I went to the village of San Isidro La Cueva for their celebration. I’d been there two years ago and wanted to be with them again.

They started with a long procession – with an image of San Isidro, singing and saying the rosary. Their intentions reflected the needs of poor rural communities.

Seeds to be blessed - in the shape of a heart

At Mass, seeds were blessed for the harvest. Padre German helped the people think of the seeds as the seeds to promote life in the community. They are not merely seeds to harvest more corn or beans. They are meant to give life to the community.

I spent lots of time talking with folks and playing with babies. No, I am not running for public office. The kids were very outgoing and one little girl hugged Padre German during Mass.

It was good to be there.

This time of the year can be quite beautiful, despite the lack of rain.

The dry season usually ends here in western Honduras in May.

But as May comes along, many bushes flower.

The acacia trees – also called fire trees – comes out in their glorious red splendor. I have seen a few absolutely gorgeous trees but didn’t have a chance to take a photo since I was driving.

The coffee bushes are also in bloom. The coffee flower has an incredible smell that reminds me of the honeysuckle that my neighbor had when I was growing up.

But it is also a time of ugliness.

In the last few weeks I have seen land devastated by fires that people are setting to clear the land. I have also seen a lot of cutting of trees. What a waste – and for what?

I do not know who is doing this slash and burn – but a few years ago when I spoke about this some people claimed that much of the devastation is wrought by large land owners – to plant more coffee or to expand land for grazing cattle. I do not know if that is the true situation but I believe there is at lest a grain of truth in it. I do know that some of the poor do burn the land to clear the weeds and the underbrush but I do think the burning of vast tracks of land may be the work of the large land-owners.

What a disaster this might be for the people here – in terms of drought, higher temperatures, and danger of landslides.

So today I invoke the intercession of St. Isidore to not only bring on the rains but to turn around these practices that so devastate the earth and turn the hearts of people from the avarice that takes over more and more land, that devastates the land for the sake of gain, and that does not care how Mother Earth is treated.

San Isidro Labrador,

da a todos un amor

por la tierra, y el valor

de luchar contra el destruidor .

St. Isidore the Farm Laborer.

give everyone a love

of the earth and the courage

to struggle against those who destroy.

Image of St. Isidore from Yaramanguila, Intibucá, Honduras

Musings and controversies in Honduras

San Isidro Labrador in Oromilaca

Tuesday was the feast of St. Isidore, the patron of farmers and farmworkers.  The sector San Isidro of the parish of Dulce Nombre had a celebration which included Mass and blessing of seeds.

The celebration also included blessing a new ambo and tabernacle for the church. The village, which has two extraordinary ministers of communion, will now have the Eucharist reserved in their church. Interestingly the tabernacle is shaped like a house with white walls and red roof tiles.

Alfredo and Efraín distributing Communion

Padre Efraín gave a spirited homily, speaking first about the devotion of San Isidro who went to Mass every morning before going to work in the landlord’s field. 

Then he went to talk about the importance of using better agricultural practices, in particular, avoiding the use of chemicals.

The parish has a program to help farmers and though part of the program is buying chemical fertilizers in bulk, the program does try to promote other practices, including teaching people how to make organic fertilizers.

It’s an uphill struggle. There have been some advances in some parts of the country. Though here in Copán some still prepare the land by burning, in the south of Lempira the municipal governments, with the support of the church, have effectively banned burning.

May San Isidro help us find better ways to feed the people. 

Blessing of seeds

If you want some more information on San Isidro/Saint Isidore, I wrote a little about him yesterday here.

There are more pictures of the event on my Flickr set here.

Deaths in the country

This past week two more reporters were killed – one from a gay alliance supporting the Resistance, the other from a mainstream radio station. Whether there will be any investigation remains to be seen. These are just two of the more than 20 journalists killed since the June 2009 coup.

I also just read that another person has been killed in the Bajo Aguan region in northeast Honduras. That makes more than fifty killed in relation to land controversies there.

A major problem is the lack of police and judicial follow up of crimes. To the people involved it appears that the government just doesn’t care – or, at the very least, is incapable of responding to the problems. This is especially so when the poor and involved as victims or the perpetrators are members of the elites or police or governmental authorities.

Addendum: President Lobo is offering 3 million lempiras (about $150,000) for information about the death of the journalist from the mainstream radio station. As far as I know, nothing has been offered about the other 20 journalists.

US involvement in Honduras

In the last year there has been much talk of US support of Honduran anti-drug-trafficking measures. The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has sent five US “commando style squads” to Central America and the Caribbean, including Honduras.

The results here – the recent killing of four to six civilians (plus the two unborn children of the two pregnant women) who were travelling in a boat on a river in the Moskitia, in the northeast of the country.

According to a report in  El Tiempo,  a Honduran daily, they were “being pursued by helicopter by agents of the National Police and the Drug Enforcement Agency of the United States (DEA).” (A translation can be found in the Quota blog, here. )

This is not the way to deal with drug-trafficking.

Any effort to deal with this needs to deal with the involvement of politicians of both major parties in drug trafficking, as well as with the corruption and involvement of the police and the military.  There are reports of a drug lord in western Honduras giving 100 dollars a month to police – but only four refused the “gift”.

The militarization of a country where the authorities do not investigate crimes and human rights abuses and where authorities are involved in serious human rights abuses will only put more power in the hands of those who refuse to deal with underlying causes of injustice and corruption.

I don’t know the way to deal with this. But the efforts of people at the local level need to be encouraged and supported. That will help begin to solve the problem, if is accompanied by some structural changes that take power away from those who profit from drug-trafficking.