{:en}PRESS RELEASE (3/06/2017)
Monday, June 5, 2017 , to the 8:30 pm, will take place in Loano Holy Mass followed by the religious procession in honor of San Isidoro, patron saint of farmers.
Isidore was a Spanish farmer who lived between the 11th and 12th centuries who was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1622. He began working the land at a very young age and, following the conquest of Madrid by the Almoravids, moved to Torrelaguna, where he married Maria Toribia, beatified in 1697 as Maria de la Cabeza. He devoted his life to work in the fields and prayer. Among the various miracles attributed to him by the church, particular mention is made of the angels who plowed a field in his place to allow him time to pray, a scene also depicted in the Loano statuary group. Saint Isidore, Isidro in Spanish, is Patron Saint of Madrid, where, in the Cathedral, his remains are preserved.
The festivities will begin in the Parish of St. John the Baptist with an 8:30 p.m. Mass during which the parish priest, Fr. Edmondo, will bless the “bundles” that is, the first fruits of the fields offered to the Loanese Farmers.
It will be followed by the procession that has been held for more than 100 years on the Monday following the feast of Pentecost and is organized by the Farmers' Committee in collaboration with the parish of St. John the Baptist where the 19th-century wooden group depicting the image of the farmer saint, the master in adoration and the pair of oxen intent on plowing the fields led by an Angel is kept.
To follow the century-old tradition, the statue will parade through the city streets, carried on the shoulders of farmers, decorated not with flowers but with all the first fruits of the fields. The statuary group's impressiveness and the heaviness of the “bouquets” made from fresh fruits and vegetables makes the task{:} particularly challenging.
