From: hildegard8@excite.com   
      
   August 16th - St. Rock of Montpellier (RM)   
    (also known as (Roch, Roche, Rocco, Rochus, Rollox, Roque, Rollock,   
   Seemirookie)   
      
   Born at Montpellier, Languedoc, France, c. 1350; died 1380. There appears to   
   be no agreement on the exact dates of Rock's birth and death. Some set his   
   birth as early as 1295; dates for his death range from 1325 to 1390 and   
   calculate his life span at a range of 29 to 83 years. Obviously, there is no   
   entirely reliable record of Rock's life; however, the legends are fairly   
   consistent.   
      
   Rock's father, a rich merchant, was one of the magistrates of Montpellier,   
   perhaps its governor. At the age of 20, the orphaned saint sold all his   
   possessions and, dressed in sackcloth and barefoot, began a pilgrimage to   
   Rome. When he reached northern Italy, he found most of the land ravaged by   
   plague (which is the reason some believe it was in 1348). After nursing the   
   sick in hospitals, he sought out those with no one to care for them,   
   supposedly at Acquapendente, Cesena, Rome, Rimini, and Novara. Because there   
   was no cure for the plague, anyone who tended those who had contracted the   
   disease was hailed as a saint. But by Rock's ardent faith and loving care,   
   many of the sick recovered often when he made the Sign of the Cross over   
   them.   
      
   He spent three years in Rome, praying every day at the tombs of the   
   Apostles, begging for his food in the streets, and caring for the sick. On   
   his way back home, he himself contracted the plague and fell sick near   
   Piacenza in northern Italy. Rather than occupying a hospital bed that might   
   be needed by someone else, Rock went into the woods to die. As he lay there,   
   weakened by hunger and illness, a dog found him, but went away. Soon the dog   
   returned with a piece of bread in its mouth that it had stolen from its   
   master's table. Each day the same thing happened until the owner noticed the   
   dog's behavior. One day he followed his pet into the forest. Between them   
   they cured the saint, who before he left converted and baptized his   
   benefactor. He then spent some time in Piacenza curing people, as well as   
   their cattle.   
      
   Rock arrived in Montpellier during a period of civil unrest. No one,   
   including his uncle who was then governor, recognized the young man who had   
   been radically transformed by disease. Another version, judged more   
   reliable, reports that Rock died in Angera (Angleria, Angers?), Lombardy,   
   Italy, where he was captured as a spy. In either case, he was arrested and   
   imprisoned for five years as a spy in the disguise of a pilgrim. He was   
   found dead in the dungeon one day. Finally he was identified by a birthmark   
   on his breast in the shape of a cross, when they stripped his body to   
   prepare it for burial. He had been dead but a short time when his first   
   posthumous miracle was wrought: the congenital limp of Justin, his jailer,   
   was healed when he nudged Rock's body with his foot to determine that he was   
   dead.   
      
   His canonization was hastened because a local plague broke out when the   
   Council of Constance was assembled between 1414 and 1418. The delegates   
   hastily begged Saint Rock's intercession, the plague ended, and Rock's   
   cultus was approved. His relics are claimed by Arles and Venice, where   
   Tintoretto decorated his church with a series of paintings. Saint Rokeshill   
   in Sussex, England, recalls his memory. Saint Rock's cultus, which had   
   declined during the 16th century, was revived by the papal approval of his   
   office for hermitages and churches dedicated to him. It was reinvigorated   
   during outbreaks of cholera in the 19th century (Attwater, Benedictines,   
   Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, White).   
      
   In art, Saint Rock is a young pilgrim with one leg bared to show a plague   
   spot. He often has a dog with him-the one that found him when he was ill,   
   who may be licking the plague spot. Sometimes he is shown being visited by   
   an angel as he lies among the plague-stricken (Roeder). Rock is one of the   
   most popular patrons against the plague, especially in France, Germany, and   
   Italy (Roeder). He is also the patron of physicians, surgeons, cattle,   
   prisoners, Istanbul (White), street-pavers, old clothes dealers, cooks, and   
   invoked against all contagious diseases (Encyclopedia).   
      
      
   Quote:   
   Nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part   
   of the good.   
   -Pope Leo XIII   
      
   Bible Quote   
   40. And when the sun was down, all they that had any sick with divers   
   diseases, brought them to him. But he laying his hands on every one of them,   
   healed them. 41. And devils went out from many, crying out and saying: Thou   
   art the Son of God. And rebuking them he suffered them not to speak, for   
   they knew that he was Christ.   
   (Luke 4:40-41)   
      
      
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   Prayer after Mass   
      
   Almighty & Eternal God   
      
   I thank You, O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, Who have designed,   
   not through any merits of mine, but out of the condescension of Your   
   goodness, to satisfy me a sinner, Your unworthy servant, with the precious   
   Body and Blood of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.   
      
   I pray that this holy Communion be not a condemnation to punishment for me,   
   but a saving plea to forgiveness.  May it be to me the armor of faith and   
   the shield of a good will.   
      
   May it be the emptying out of my vices and the extinction of all lustful   
   desires; an increase of charity and patience, of humility and obedience,   
   and of all virtues; a strong defense against the snares of all my enemies,   
   visible and invisible; the perfect quieting of all my evil impulses of flesh   
   and spirit, binding me firmly to You, the one true God; and a happy ending   
   of my life.   
      
   I pray too that You will deign to bring me a sinner to that ineffable   
   banquet, where You with Your Son and the Holy Spirit, are to Your saints   
   true light, fulfillment of desires, eternal joy, unalloyed gladness, and   
   perfect bliss. Through the same Christ our Lord.  - Amen.   
      
   Saint Thomas Aquinas   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)