ROCH, Saint. - Young pilgrim, b. at Montpellier and d. at Angleria (Angera, on the eastern shore of Lake Maggiore) in the 14th century; invoked from the 15th century together with St. Sebastian, whose fame as a thaumaturge he gradually eclipsed, as a protector against the plague. Feast on 16 August.
I. BIOGRAPHICAL DATA
Despite the Acta breviora and the Vita s. Rochi by Francesco Diedo (v. below in the bibliography), we remain in the dark, both as regards the chronology and as regards part of the Saint's biography, so much so that people have even gone to the absurd length of denying his historical personality. The dates 1295 and 1327 for his birth and death, supplied — one does not know on what basis — by Diedo, do not agree with the facts narrated in the Vita. In 1921, P. Guerrini indicated c. 1355 as the probable date of death; recently, after a careful analysis of the Acta breviora, A. Maurino and A. Fliche proposed for the birth and death, the former 1345 and 1377, the latter 1350 and 1378-79. It has also been said that the name R. was a transformation of the surname of the ancient Montpellier family of the Rochch or Rog (Rubeus), to which R. would have belonged, except that the name of R. is by no means unknown to medieval onomastics. A bishop of Autun at the beginning of the 7th century was called "Racho", or "Rocco", and his feast was celebrated on 28 January (cf. L. Duchesne, Fastes épisc. de l'ancienne Gaule, II, Paris 1910, p. 179; V. Leroquais, Les bréviaires, V, index, p. 261); a Psalter of Treviso of about the middle of the 13th century records under 1 July the feast "s. Rochi conf." (cf. V. Leroquais, Les psautiers, II, p. 99); the recent edition (Rome 1936) of the Passio b. Petri Parentii of the beginning of the 13th century speaks of a young man
"nomine Rochus" (cf. P. Paschini, Notarella su s. R., in Riv. di storia della Chiesa in Italia, 4 [1950], p. 248).
In the Acta, duly sifted of hagiographical commonplaces, the following biographical data seem truly reliable. Orphaned at a young age, R., after distributing his paternal inheritance in alms, left Montpellier for a pilgrimage to Rome; having reached Acquapendente, he placed himself at the service of the plague-stricken, who were the first to experience his thaumaturgic power; from there he went to Cesena to perform the same charitable office. From Cesena he took the road to Rome again, where he healed a cardinal who then presented him to the Pope. In the City R. stayed
(phot. Enc. Catt.)
ROCCO, santo - Polychrome wooden statue (15th cent.), from the lazzaretto - Acquapendente, church of S. Caterina.
Petrus Iubovicus Malbu ra Tu Sitam lanci Rodri
Contra Pettem Epidonic Apud vimi bigalli
mi interefficio Chiaci cuiidem Offico.
for three years, devoting himself to the poor and the plague-stricken; then he went, again for the same charitable reasons, to Rimini, to Novara and then to Piacenza, where, stricken by the same disease, he withdrew from the city and lived for some time in a wooded place; once healed he took the road back to his homeland, but at Angera he was arrested on suspicion of espionage and died in prison after 5 years of confinement. Once his identity was recognized after death, he was buried with honour. The site of the tomb is not indicated.
II. CULT
The biographer Jean Pin speaks of a canonization, but to this day there is no confirmation of it; if this did happen, one must suppose that such a canonization was performed by the antipopes Clement VII or rather Benedict XIII; it is certain that in 1590 Sixtus V had in mind to canonize him "or else to remove him from the number of the Saints," as a dispatch of the Venetian ambassador Alberto Badoer attests (cf. P. Paschini, art. cit., p. 249). In 1629 the Sacred Congregation of Rites granted the Office and Mass of St. R. for churches erected in his honor.
In Montpellier, R. was not an object of cult before 1410, since in that year, on the occasion of a pestilence, only St. Sebastian was invoked; however, in 1421 there is record of a chapel in honor of R. existing there, and around 1440 of the celebration of his feast on August 16. In Avignon in 1437 the painter Pierre de la Barre was to paint an altarpiece in which the "ymago s. Roqui" was also to figure. In France, Missals and Psalters of the 15th century (the oldest is a Psalter-hymnal of Maguelone, from the beginning or first half of the 15th century: the Calendar bears in a first hand at August 16 "sancte Roc [sic]": V. Leroquais, Les psautiers, I, p. 278) record, first as an addition and then inserted into the text, the feast of R., whose name also appears in Books of Hours; it does not appear in Breviaries. In Germany, wooden statues of R. from the 15th century are preserved, among them that of Obersimonswald in the Black Forest, from around 1450 (cf. K. Künstle, op. cit. in bibl., II, p. 515). In Italy the cult of R. underwent an extraordinary development in the second half of the 15th century, precisely on the occasion of violent pestilences: 1476 at Gemona (cf. G. Marchetti, op. cit. in bibl., p. 5); 1477 at Venice; 1478-79 at Brescia. In 1485 the mysterious translation of the relics to Venice took place; from this moment the city of St. Mark, with its church of St. R. and the sumptuous scuola of St. R. (16th century), an artistic and charitable center in keeping with the spirit of the Saint, became the radiating hearth of the cult of the great thaumaturge, which spread wherever Venetian power made itself felt. Numerous confraternities, hospitals, chapels and churches arose in his honor throughout Europe, and August 16 became in more than one place a votive feast, celebrated with solemn popular festivities. In Rome the church of St. R., near the port of Ripetta, dates back to the dawn of the 16th century. As for the procession in honor of R. that took place, according to Diedo, at Constance in 1414, on the occasion of the Council, for historical reasons it seems it must be referred to that of Ferrara (January 1439). The feast of R. on August 16 appears in various editions of the Missale Romanum prior to the reform of St. Pius V, beginning with that of Venice of 1505 (cf. R. Lippe, Missale Romanum Mediolani 1474, II, London 1907 [H. Bradshaw Society, 33], pp. 225-26; A. Ebner, Iter Italicum, Freiburg im Br. 1896, p. 231, mentions a single manuscript missal [16th century] with the feast of the Saint).
III. ICONOGRAPHY
Another testimony to the popular cult of R. is the rich iconographic material concerning him. R. is depicted as a pilgrim, of youthful appearance, with his left leg (less frequently the right) exposed, bearing a swollen bubo and also a purulent sore, which the Saint points to with his right hand. Beside him stands the dog with a loaf of bread in its mouth, an allusion to the bread which, according to the Acta, the dog of the noble Gottardo brought him daily while he lay ill near Piacenza. He is often in the company of an angel who, according to the Acta, appeared to the Saint to announce his recovery and then his death, and of other saints among whom are St. Sebastian, protector of the plague-stricken from the 7th century onward, and who is part of the quinque famosiores sancti contra pestem titulares together with St. R., St. Anthony, St. Adrian and St. Christopher (cf. Anal. Boll., 60 [1942], p. 239). Besides the statues preserved in the Museum of Grenoble (early 15th century), at Acquapendente (15th century) and Obersimonswald (c. 1450), mention is made, among the very many that could be cited, listed by Künstle, Ceroni (S. R., Rome 1927), Fliche (St-R., Paris 1930), and Bessodes (S. R., Turin 1931), only of the pictorial or sculptural works of the following artists; for the 15th century: Crivelli (Venice), Ghirlandaio (Pisa), Bergognone (Milan), the Rodari brothers (Como); for the 16th century: Pordenone, Titian, Tintoretto (Venice); for the 17th century: Van Dyck (Senlis), Guido Reni (Bologna), Rubens (Alost), Preti, Baciccia (Rome); for the 18th century: Tiepolo, Marchiori (Venice); for the 19th century: Mariani (Rome), Baussan, Marsal (Montpellier). - See pl. LVII.
Bibliography11 works
A. Pietro Frutaz