Saint Who?
Saints Who Worked in Agriculture
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Beautiful, orderly, teeming with life and light, the world is made and filled, and man is placed at its head as beneficiary and caretaker. Then the Lord God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. A garden specially planted by the Lord becomes the stage of mankind’s drama.
Agriculture is an essential part of human life. Modern days have seen a measure of alienation from this labor. Yet it is not difficult, even for the wielders of cellphones and recipients of delivered groceries, to see how such work develops virtue. Cultivation requires humility, trust, hope, hard work, patience. It is also a common metaphor in the Scriptures. Jesus used many agricultural images, from the parable of the sower to the statement I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
This month we will consider saints who worked in agriculture: from Isidore and Fiacre, whose holiness was tied to such work, to saints who left the farm to reap a different harvest, like Theobald and Jacques Berthieu. Through the intercession of Our Lady, whose birthday we celebrate on September 8, we give thanks for all honest labor, and especially the labor of agriculture.
