ROCH,
ST. (Lat. Rochus; Ital. Rocco; Span. Roque; Fr. Roch) (d. 1327),
a confessor whose death is commemorated on the 16th of August; he is specially
invoked against the plague. According to his Acta, he was born at
Montpellier, France, about 1295. He early began to manifest strict asceticism
and great devoutness, and on the death of his parents in his twentieth
year he gave all his substance to the poor. Coming to Italy during an epidemic
of plague, he was very diligent in tending the sick in the public hospitals
at Aquapendente, Cesena and Rome, and effected many miraculous cures by
prayer and simple contact. After similar ministries at Piacenza he himself
fell ill. He was expelled from the town, and withdrew into the forest,
where he would have perished had not a dog belonging to a nobleman named
Gothardus supplied him with bread. On his return to Montpellier he was
arrested as a spy and thrown into prison, where he died on the 16th of
August 1327, having previously obtained from God this favour that all plague-stricken
persons invoking him should be healed. His cult spread through Spain, France,
Germany, Belgium and Italy. A magnificent temple was raised to him at Venice,
where his body is believed to lie, and numerous brotherhoods have been
instituted in his honour. He is usually represented in the garb of a pilgrim,
with a wound in his thigh, and with a dog near him carrying a loaf in its
mouth.
See Ada sanctorum, August,
iii. 380-415; Charles Cahier Les Charactéristiques des saints
(Paris
1867). pp. 215-217. (H. De.)
Eleventh
Edition