Chants for the feast day of St. Isidore the Farmer, patron of farmers in the United States
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Because I received an insert for my Breviary, I learned that the feast day of St Isidore is October 25 (today, for another 5 minutes, on the west coast).

    Does anyone know of any settings of Exiit qui seminat, the Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel antiphon, or Ecce homo agricola, the Magnificat antiphon? Or a Mass composed in his honor (which would, of course, be for three voices)?
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,048
    Exiit was set by Alsonso de Tejeda (1556-1628) a 4, and by Giovanni Giorgi (d.1762) a4 with organ, neither of which has, as far as I can see, been digitized or edited. They're both marked in the manuscript as being for Sexegesima, but I don't find that text in the LU, so I can't say whether it's the same text. I couldn't find any Latin Propers or Office for him online, a task complicated by the wild variety of liturgical dates he has, so if you have more info, there's an interested homesteader I know.

    Amusing aside from Wikipedia:
    "A large celebration is held in Estepona, near Marbella along the Costa del Sol in Andalucia, where locals celebrate the day by drinking a mix of brandy and a popular energy drink which is named in his honour. This has led to Saint Isidore often being termed the “patron saint of krunk” (the name of this combination drink in the United States)."
    Thanked by 1Chris Garton-Zavesky
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    My Ordo insert for the United States places his feast day on October 25. It's a 3rd class feast, except under the usual conditions.

    My Liber Usualis doesn't mention him on the 25th of October in the section on particular feasts.

    The 3rd lection at Matins has this: "Quadringentos post annos a Gregorio decimo quinto Sanctorum fastis adscriptum, dein Pius duodecimus ruricolarum in Septentrionalis Americae Civitatibus Foederatis Patronum declaravit et constituit."

    skipping to the last part, it says that Pius XII made St. Isidore the patron of those who till the land in the United States. Evidently at some point in the past, our farm laborers took their faith seriously.

    This link is for the right antiphon, so far as I can tell.






  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,704
    In the Supplement at the back of the 1953 Liber published by St. Bonaventure Press,

    St Isidore the Farm Labourer, Double major is on the 22nd March in all dioceses of the United States. It contain the Magnificat Antiphon 1st Vespers, Labores manuum The Mass is Justus ut palma with Proper collects and Epistle James 5, 7-8,11, 16-18 & Gospel Ego sum vitas vera, 2nd Vespers Magnificat Antiphon is Ecce Homo agricola all else is from the common.

    In the 1957 Graduale he is in the supplement on the 15 May! (Justus et Palma).
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    Is this one and the same as Saint Isidore of Seville, the 'last learned man of the classical era', who wrote on agriculture as well as more learned matters?
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Jackson,

    Most emphatically not. One was a learned man. The other was a farm labourer, unlearned, at least as the world counts learning. This second was never a bishop, among other things.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,048
    "In 1947, at the request of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, he was officially named patron of farmers, with a feast day on May 10 in all dioceses of the United States, with a proper Mass and Office. When St Isidore's feast was first inserted into the calendar for the United States in the year 1947, the feast day of Saint John Baptist de La Salle was still being celebrated on May 15, with the result that the celebration of his feast was assigned to March 22.

    With the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar, the memorial of Saint John Baptist de la Salle was moved to his day of death, April 7, and Saint Isidore's was restored to the May 15 date and is celebrated as an optional memorial. In some places within the US and Canada, his feast is celebrated on October 25, and other locations and some Traditionalist Catholics in that area, though not elsewhere, keep the March 22 date." -- Wikipedia.

    The Cantius ordo has him on 10/25 for the US.

    Like most cantus firmus settings, this is stiff. But there's not a lot of competition:
    Ecce homo agricola.pdf
    105K
    Thanked by 4tomjaw CHGiffen Chris Garton-Zavesky M. Jackson Osborn
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Very interesting, Jeffrey.

    Thank you.
Add a Comment