The story of Isidore the Farmer illustrates how saintliness has not so much to do with martyrdom or feats of self-denial but with honoring God in the workaday world with simple acts of devotion. Born around 1070 to devout Spanish peasants, Isidore lived out his life as a day laboror for a wealthy land-owner with an estate near Madrid. Isidore’s daily attendance at Mass angered fellow field hands who accused him of shirking work until it was revealed that angels helped the faithful Isidore with his plowing, sometimes tilling the soil in twos by his side to increase his crop yield. The cooking pot in the humble home Isidore shared with his godly wife, Maria--beatified by the Roman Catholic Church—always had ample food for the hungry and the grain bags he opened to feed starving birds in winter arrived full at the mill. Isidore is the patron of farmworkers and counts among the illustrious "Five Saints of Spain." We see him kneeling in prayer while an angel in red plows a field in this acrylic on wood panel piece by Mexican Painter Santiago Lorenzo. He hails from a family of folk artisans, keeping alive the traditional crafts of the indigenous Nahua people of central Mexico. (John Kohan)