De sancto Rocho confessore
The Pilgrimage of Renunciation
Roch leaves behind his noble inheritance and family status to embrace a life of humble pilgrimage and self-discipline.
Roch, a confessor from Narbonne, was born near Montpellier to his parents, John and Libera; he was twelve when he began to discipline his body. He began to practice abstinence and self-discipline. After his parents died, he gave his vast inheritance to the poor, renounced his status, and entrusted his family's towns to his uncle. Dressed in simple clothes with a hat, wallet, and staff, he set out for Italy as a pilgrim, eventually reaching Rome and Aquapendente.
The Suffering Servant of the Plague
Roch ministers to the plague-stricken and endures his own suffering and imprisonment with patience, leaving behind a promise of divine protection for those who seek his intercession.
After he had freed Cesena and many other places suffering from a severe plague by the sign of the cross, he stopped at a hospital for the sick in Piacenza, which was also infected by the plague. Once everyone there was healed, he was suddenly struck by an arrow in his left thigh. After a bitter struggle, he regained his health and returned to France, which was then troubled by war. He was arrested in his father's town and thrown into prison as a spy, where he spent five years in great patience and austerity, praying to the Lord that those who call upon His name might be protected from the most savage plague. He fell asleep in peace in the year of our Lord 1327, at the age of 32, on the 16th day before the Kalends of September. At his side was found a tablet inscribed with these words: 'I declare that those suffering from the plague who flee to the patronage of Roch will be delivered from that most cruel contagion.'
The Enduring Devotion
Following his death, the veneration of Roch spreads rapidly as his relics are translated and his intercession continues to bring healing to the faithful.
Once this patronage was known, after long funeral rites performed with many tears, he committed the holy body to burial, erecting a magnificent temple to him. The name of Roch was brought back by those returning from the Council of Constance, who had recently been delivered by him from a raging plague in the year of salvation 1415. They brought it into Italy, where, because of his countless miracles... Miracles are being reported everywhere daily, and in the year 1485, his body was secretly brought to Venice and received with great devotion by the Senate, and a very famous temple was built in his name; his feast is venerated on the 17th day before the Kalends of September.
Read the original Latin
Rochus confessor genere Narbonensis apnd montem Pessulanum ex patre Joanne, matre libera progenitus annorum XII corpus suuin. coepit abstinen castigare, qui mortnis parentibus amplissima hereditate pauperibus distributa a principatu se abdicans, oppidis paternis patruo commendatis, brevi veste induetus cum pileo, pera et baculo in Italiam peregrinus devenit, et quum Romam, Aquam. pendentem, Cesenam aliaque plurima loca truci pestilentia vexata signo crucis liberasset, Placentiam eadem lue infectam ad quoddam aegrotantium hospitale devertit, Quibus omnibus similiter sanatis statim sinistra coxa sagitta transfigitur, sed post acerbam passionem salutem consecntus in Galliam armis tunc vexatam remeavit et in paterno captus oppido ut explorator carceri detruditur, in quo exacto quinqneunio in maxima patientia et vilae austeritate dominum orans, ut invocantes nomen suum a saevissima pestilentia protegerentur, in pace obdormivit anno domini MCCCXXVII, aetatis suae XXXII, XVI cal. Septembr,, ad cujns latus reperta est tabella bis litteris inscripta: peste laborantes ad Rochi patrocinium confugientes contagionem illam truculentissimam evasuros significo. Quo a patrno cognito inter multas lacrymas peractis longo tractu exsequiis sanctum corpus tradidit sepulturae, eidem templum magni sumtus erigens. Mnjus vero nomen redeunles a concilio Constantiae ab eo recenter a furenti pestilentia liberati anno salutis MCCCCXV. detulerunt in Italiam, in qua ob ejus inmunerabilia. miracula basi sella ubique in dies eriguntur et anno ejusdem MCCCCLXXXV corpus ejus furtim Venetias delatum a senatui devolissune susceptum est et ejus nomini templum celeberrimum fabricatum, Festum ipsius XVII cal, Septembr, veneratur, a
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