His story
He was born at Montpellier about 1295 and gave his fortune to the poor when he was about 20 years old. On a pilgrimage to Italy he nursed people sick with the plague, until he caught it himself at Piacenza and went off to a hut in the forest, where a gentleman named Gothard found him and looked after him. Back at Montpellier he would not say who he was, so he was taken for a spy and put in prison, and he died there five years later.
His feast day
16 August: His feast in the Catholic Church.
Why people ask St Roch
Animals and pets
Catholics name him the patron of dogs. The story usually told says that while he lay sick with plague in a forest hut, a dog brought him bread every day from its master’s table, and he is painted with the dog beside him.
Where it comes from
Who wrote it
No one knows who wrote it, and the oldest printing found is from 1875.
Mary Seymour, Stories of the Saints for Children, vol. 2 (London, 1875), pp. 113-114
For a sick dog
We found no old prayer to him for dogs. People pray this one for a sick dog.
