Saint Roch

Roch was born in Montpellier, France, probably in the fourteenth century, into a wealthy family. The details of his life come mainly from later accounts. Orphaned young, he gave his inheritance to the poor and set out as a pilgrim to Rome. In Italy he found cities struck by the plague and stayed to nurse the sick, and many were said to be healed when he made the Sign of the Cross over them.

At Piacenza he caught the disease himself. Not wanting to be a burden, he withdrew into a forest to die, but a dog belonging to a nobleman brought him bread each day and licked his wounds until he recovered. Returning home, he was not recognized and was imprisoned as a spy, where he died after several years, probably around 1376–1379. Devotion to him spread rapidly through Europe during later plagues, and in 1485 his relics were brought to Venice, where the Scuola Grande di San Rocco was built in his honor.

On his day, dogs are blessed in many towns in Italy, Spain and France. San Roque is patron of countless towns in Spain and Latin America, and in Tarija, Bolivia, his great festival features colorful chuncho dancers in fulfillment of vows.

He is shown as a pilgrim pointing to a wound on his leg, with a dog carrying a loaf of bread.