St. Roch

St. Roch was born about 1295 at Montpellier in France, the son of the town's governor, and was left an orphan while still young. Giving away his inheritance to the poor, he set out as a pilgrim toward Rome, and it was on this journey, as plague ravaged the towns of Italy, that he found his vocation: he stopped in the stricken cities to nurse the victims of the pestilence, and many were said to be healed at his touch and prayer.

At length he caught the plague himself and, unwilling to burden others, withdrew to a forest to die, where tradition holds that a dog brought him bread each day and licked his wound until he recovered. Returning at last to Montpellier unrecognized, he was taken for a spy and imprisoned, dying in captivity about 1327. Because of his care for plague victims and his own recovery, he became one of the most invoked patrons against epidemics and contagious disease, and is celebrated on 16 August.