I grew up in a working-class subdivision in Makati in the late 50s and the early 60s. That meant walking half a kilometer to the bus stop or the nearest Catholic chapel.
There were still vacant lots in the subdivision. More often than not, they were overgrown with talahib grass. It was common to see skinks or sand lizards (locally known as bubuli) scurry across the street from one talahib-strewn lot to the other.
As kids, we were afraid of the bubuli. But there was something even more scary to us. Those were unleashed dogs on the street, especially if they looked fierce, were barking angrily, or growling. My parents instructed us never to run away from dogs; we were told it would make them pursue us with jaws poised to attack.
The one phrase that would make us kids drop everything we were doing outside to run indoors was the cry, “Asong ulol” – mad dog – and seeing a blindly running rabid dog with its mouth foaming, on the street.
My parents taught us to pray to San Roque to keep unknown dogs away. It is a habit I learned and practice to this day. In church, my parents would point out his statue to us.
Invariably, the saint had a fresh wound on one of his legs and a dog beside him.
For some strange reason, I never asked my parents why San Roque had that wound. In my young mind, I thought the injury was a bite from a dog with rabies and that he had been miraculously cured.
Today’s saint is San Roque.[1] He is known in the English-speaking world as St. Roch. St. Rocco among the French. He was born sometime around 1295, the only son of the wealthy governor of Montpellier, France. The story is that his mother had been asking the Blessed Virgin Mother for a child as she was childless. When St. Roch was born, it is said that he had a deep cross-shaped red mark on his chest. The mark was interpreted as a sign that the Blessed Virgin Mary had heard the prayer.
San Roque was a deeply religious child. Like his mother, he fasted twice a week. When he became completely orphaned at twenty, he sold his inheritance and gave the proceeds to the poor. He turned over the government of the city to his uncle. After this, he became a pilgrim, dependent on alms for his sustenance. He then joined the Franciscans as a tertiary, put on a pilgrim’s attire, and began a pilgrimage to visit and pray at the holy places in Rome.
About a hundred twenty or so kilometers from Rome, he came upon the village of Acquapendente. Like many places in Europe at that time, it was overrun by the Black Plague. At great personal risk, San Roque stopped for a time to care for the sick in private homes and in hospitals. It was discovered that he had healing powers. People on whom he made the Sign of the Cross recovered from the fatal illness. He continued on his journey only after the spread of the disease in the village had stopped. Every time he passed a plague-stricken village and town he visited, and finally, in Rome, he continued healing and caring for the sick.
In Piacenza, a city 500 or so kilometers north of Rome, he discovered that he was no longer immune to the Black Plague. A wound appeared on his leg. Entrusting himself to God, he decided to isolate himself in a remote and abandoned forest hut to await his death. He did not want to burden anyone with his care.
A hunting dog found him in the forest. It kept bringing him food daily and also licking his wounds. A spring also bubbled up near the hut to provide fresh water to the saint. The dog’s owner, a nobleman, followed his dog into the woods and thereby discovered San Roque, who was recovering from the disease by then.
San Roque received a message from God to return to his birthplace Montpellier. He found the city at war. Since he had already renounced his position as the son of the former governor, he refused to disclose his identity to the soldiers; he wanted to remain poor and unknown. He ended up being accused as a spy, unrecognized by his uncle, who couldn’t see through his altered appearance.
Legend has it that he spent the last five years of his life in prison, abandoned and forgotten. Angels took care of him. A Franciscan, Brother Marion A. Habig, O.F.M. wrote:
When he felt that his end was drawing near, Saint Roch asked that a priest might come and administer the last sacraments. The priest, on entering the prison, beheld it supernaturally lighted up and the poor captive surrounded with special radiance. As death claimed its victim, a tablet appeared on the wall on which an angelic hand wrote in golden letters the name of Roch, and the prediction that all who would invoke his intercession would be delivered from the plague. Informed of all that took place, Saint Roch’s uncle came to the prison and, shortly after, also the governor’s mother, that is, Roch’s grandmother. She identified the dead man as her grandson by the birthmark of the red cross on his breast. They gave him a magnificent funeral and had a church built in his honor, in which his body was entombed. His veneration was approved by several popes and soon spread throughout Europe.
Marion A. Habig, O.F.M.
When the Black Plague hit Rome again in 1414, the Council of Constance turned to San Roque, the patron saint against the plague. Processions and prayers were held in his honor; the plague ended. He is often represented in the following manner
St. Roch is often depicted as a pilgrim with a walking staff and seashell (the symbol of a pilgrim), an open sore on his leg, an angel by his side, and a dog at his feet. He is the patron saint of dogs, dog owners, knee problems, surgeons, invalids, bachelors, diseased cattle, and against cholera, plague, skin rashes and diseases, contagious diseases, pestilence, and epidemics.
Today’s Gospel reading says:
Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.
Mt. 19, 23 – 24
San Roque has given us an example.
His example shows that the measure of choosing to be free to serve others is beyond the giving up of riches.
Our talents are to be put at the service of the Kingdom.
Let those who can create jobs do so so that others can find work to sustain their families.
Let those who can teach, teach especially those who have not even learned the basics because of the pandemic.
Let us tap our talents so that others can live.
[1] https://www.catholiccompany.com/magazine/st-roch-patron-of-dogs-6114
One Jesuit's Musings 