SAINT ROCH-PATRON SAINT OF EPIDEMICS AND DOGS

BY PETER VUONO

DEDICATED TO ALL HEALTH CARE WORKERS


     When I see the incredible valor of all of our health care workers throughout the world I can't help but think of their predecessor, Saint Roch of France who , in spite of being a nobleman, traveled to various cities in Italy to cure those afflicted with plague at the age of twenty.  Just prior to the passing or Roch's parents, his father,  a wealthy nobleman ,on his death, bed decreed that his son would be the new governor of Montpelier France.
     Very much like Prince Harry,Roch denounced his birthright and traveled to Italy to the hospitals of Acquapendente, Cesena, Remini, Novara and Rome to assist in healing the sick who were inflicted with plague all across Italy. It was said that Roch healed victims completely by merely laying his hands upon the afflicted.
     While assisting in the town of Piacenza, Roch contacted the plague himself. Not wishing to infect anyone, he ostracized himself to the woods and constructed a hut made from branches and leaves. Miraculously, a small spring of water arose nearby.
      Living in the town of Piacenza was a count Gotthard Palastrelli who enjoyed taking his dog to hunt. Palastrelli didn't realize however, that the dog found Roch and stealthily made trips to Roch's refuge with bread each day! When the count followed his dog to see exactly what was happening, he found Roch fully healed and later became an acolyte.
      When Saint Roch retuned to Montpelier, France was at war. He was arrested by the soldiers of his own uncle as a spy and thrown into jail. Roch refused to say who he was thinking that he would fully obey any fate that God would bring to him. After 5 years in a dungeon he succumbed and passed in the year 1376 at age 28. He was identified after his death by a birth mark in the shape of a cross on his chest. He would later be made a saint by Pope Gregory XIV and is the patron saint of infectious diseased, epidemics persons unjustifiably jailed and dogs because of the bond he shared with the count's hunting dog.
     In Saint Roch cemetery in New Orleans there is a chapel constructed at least 100 years ago. In a side room of the chapel there is an enormous cache of ex-votos made from plaster and plastic along with dozens of crutches and other apparatus of assisting the afflicted. An ex-voto is a realistic "thank you" given to a saint for healing.
     Only a few visit his chapel and appeal to him for help. Very few of us either know of  or appeal to him However, I wonder how better off we'd be and how many fewer would suffer and die if we did.