Who we are
St. Isidore's stands where County Road K meets the section line, as it has for a hundred and fifty years. The families who built it farmed this ground with horses; the families who fill it now farm it with GPS, work the hog barns and the packing plant, and came from Zacatecas, Huehuetenango and three miles down the road.
We pray for rain and for dry weather at harvest, sometimes in the same week. We keep a garden that feeds the county pantry, bless the seed in spring and the tractors in May, and eat together more than any parish our size should. You are welcome at all of it.
Through the years
German and Irish homesteaders raised the first St. Isidore's in 1872 from lumber hauled by wagon from the river, and named it for the Spanish farmworker-saint who prayed while the angels ploughed. It burned in 1911 and was rebuilt the next summer, board for board, by the same families. In the 1990s a new generation of farmworkers came from Mexico and later Guatemala; Fr. Tomás began the Spanish Mass in 1998 with eleven people in the front pews. Today the 11:00 is the fuller of the two, the parish garden has grown to an acre, and the bell that rang for the first harvest Mass still rings for every one since.
Shepherds & servants
Rev. Tomás Villarreal
Pastor
Fr. Tomás grew up picking tomatoes in the Rio Grande Valley and has been our pastor since 1998. He blesses every tractor by name.
Rosa Pérez Xicay
Hispanic Ministry & Faith Formation
Rosa runs catechesis in both languages, the Posadas, and the quinceañera preparation. Habla español, K'iche' e inglés.
Deacon Walter Brinkmann
Permanent Deacon
Deacon Walt farms 600 acres of corn and beans on the Brinkmann home place and baptizes most of the babies born to it.
Hannah Kessler
Garden & Creation Care Coordinator
Hannah came home from Ames with a soil-science degree and now runs the parish acre, the seed library, and our Laudato Si' group.
Serve & belong
Our community garden: forty raised beds, an orchard of heritage apples, and a thousand pounds of produce a year for the county pantry.
garden@stisidore-demo.org
Monthly reading, prairie restoration on the old cemetery ground, and the parish's switch to solar in 2025.
Borrow seed in April, bring some back in October. Grandma Ortiz's chiles are the most requested.
El coro de la Misa de las 11. Ensayamos los jueves a las 7. Guitarras, violín, y todas las voces.
Quiet, confidential help for families facing a bad year: meals, a listening ear, and people who know who to call.
Linens, flowers from the garden, and the funeral lunches. Founded 1903 and never once late.
In pictures
