16th of August - St Roch's Day
16th of August is the 228th day of the year
St Roch's Day:
St Roch is a medieval figure, and as such his name has numerous versions – Roc, Roche, Rock and Roque to list but four. There is much dispute about when he lived (or if), but his tale is a charming one. The son of the governor of Montpellier he inherited great wealth aged 20 when his parents died, but gave it all away and set out for Rome. There he found plague, and tended to the sick until he contracted the disease himself. Banished to the woods he was kept alive by a spring that appeared miraculously, and by a dog that brought him bread - and by liking his wounds cured him. Roch returned to Montpellier but a wicked uncle immediately imprisoned him as a spy. To avoid adulation Roch kept quiet about his identity and story, and so died in prison, perhaps only 30. After his death Roch became the patron of plague sufferers, invoked by those seeking a cure. A church in Glasgow and St Roche’s Hill in West Sussex are two nods towards the saint in this country.
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