When Barb Becker was young she recalls that farmers brought a lot of tractors and seed to St. Isidore’s church to be blessed on St. Isidore’s feast day in mid-May.
Isidore is the patron saint of farmers. The saint is also patron of this country church, founded in 1898. When Barb was young, the church was in the heart of Moran Township’s prosperous dairy farming region. Those were less secular times than today and, for some, bringing their Farmall C and oat seed in to be blessed was as important as a visit to their banker. Who, after all, plays a larger role in the success of your crop? The Lord or the bank?
Since then country churches and family farmers alike have come on hard times. At St. Isidore’s there were fewer farmers and fewer tractors to bless each year. The bishop closed St. Isidore’s, south of Staples, a few years ago. Shuttering the church was a blow to the rural community that still includes a busy country store.
“Everybody used to come to the picnics and the church celebrations,” Arlynn Mack said. “It didn’t matter if they were Catholic or Protestant.”
Mack said that there was a civility connected with attending a country church.
“After church people took the time to stay and visit. Sometimes the men would complain the women talked too much. But I guess you don’t know a good thing until you don’t have it any more,” he said.
Mack, Becker and a few others are trying to bring back some of the civility, and perhaps spirituality, to rural living. Every year on St. Isidore’s feast the doors to the beautiful stone church are opened wide. Faithful from near and far come to remember their baptism or wedding in the church, or to visit a grave in the adjacent cemetery.
This year, on May 15, the Saint’s day, children carried seeds and plants to the altar to be blessed by Father Ralph Zimmerman and Deacon Mark Zenner. Before the mass was over a grinning Zimmerman enthusiastically invited the congregation outside.
There he blessed two old, but fully operable, Farmalls, an Oliver and an International. Songs were sung, holy water splashed, and prayers recited in the hope of a bountiful harvest. Then everyone retreated to the basement for potluck, renewed friendships and lengthy conversations. It was a civility revival.
