The Vatican has granted the Canonical Patronage of the Villa de La Orotava to San Isidro Labrador. The municipality has received this news with the issuance of a decree from the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. With this document, the Holy See has responded to the request that the parish community, together with the brotherhood of San Isidro Labrador de La Orotava, raised to Rome to canonically confirm this title that by tradition and veneration has been maintained in the Villa for 400 years. back and that has always been felt in the roots of all Orotavanese.
Since 1700 there are already references to the veneration of the farmers in this northern municipality celebrating mass and procession in their honor. Since that date, the festival has not been stopped. According to historical data, the cults were maintained in the Church of San Agustín until the end of the 19th century, and then they moved to Calvary.
The historian Manuel Hernández also affirms that the church of La Concepción registered other important documents that made reference to the religious work of the farmers who participated in the acts of the patron saints of the town, but these, from the 17th and 18th centuries, were they have lost over time. Another reference, in which the issue of rods and clothing is mentioned for the first time, is that of Mariano Nouguell Secall, who narrates in 1868 that the festivities of the Patron Saint San Isidro Labrador of the Villa de La Orotava were preceded by 12 poor farmers, with very long rods covered with flowers. “Infinity of ribbons of diverse colors that represent the flowers and fruits of our fields hung from each rod. Also a cloth handkerchief in the shape of a bow and at the top of a bar, intertwined spikes”.
In addition, it stands out that among the peasants there was a custom of raffling off an ox team, honoring with this act the charity of the Saint, just as it is done today. Therefore, since that date the farmers have been in charge of the religious and popular acts of San Isidro; and in the last century it was continued by the group of sharecroppers of the Valley who worked the lands of lords and important families. Meeting, the vast majority, only for these dates. At present, the farmers continue each year taking down their rods, renovating them with love and care. And his greatest desire is to ensure the protection and conservation of this tradition, passing it from parents to children and grandchildren.
The main acts in his honor take place in the Villa between the months of May and June. Every May 15, specifically, the Day of San Isidro is celebrated with a Eucharistic celebration and a procession of the images that are in the Calvario hermitage.
