St.Isidore the Farmer (1070-1130)
This humble Spanish farm worker shared the same canonization ceremony in 1622 with four other famous saints: Saint Philip of Neri, St.Igatius Loyola, St.Teresa of Avila and St.Francis Xavier. Why a humble peasant of whose life virtually nothing was known with certainty, who had died in obscurity many years earlier, became a saint is still a mystery.

But saints are a mixture of those who lived ordinary lives and those who lived extraordinary. Isidore was an ordinary down to earth man, who had deep faith that touched many people. Isidore’s wife was also venerated, making them possibly unique in the history of the Church, in that both were popularly acclaimed as saints soon after their death.
Isidore and his wife Turibia stand as extraordinary people who stood out from the ordinary. They have embraced the humble and humdrum of all our lives. They speak for countless men and women throughout the world and down through the ages.