Roch

Životopis

Roch was a 14th-century French-born mystic and healer who lived during the devastating Black Death plague. Born to nobility in Montpellier, he renounced his worldly possessions and lived as a pilgrimage hermit, devoting himself to caring for plague victims with extraordinary compassion. During his travels to Rome, he spent years nursing the sick and reportedly healed multitudes through prayer and miraculous intervention. When Roch himself contracted plague, he withdrew to a forest to avoid burdening others, where a dog brought him food and a nobleman sheltered him. He recovered and continued his ministry until returning to France, where he was imprisoned and died in Montpellier around 1379. His rapid veneration after death made him one of Catholicism's most popular saints, invoked by the afflicted throughout Europe and beloved for his selfless service to plague's victims.