Saint Roch
Saint Roch or Rocco lived c. 1348 – 15/16 August 1376/79 (traditionally c. 1295 – 16 August 1327) was a Catholic saint, a confessor whose death is commemorated on 16 August; he is specially invoked against the plague. He may also be called Rock in English, and has the designation of St Rollox in Glasgow, Scotland, said to be a corruption of St Roch's Loch. He is a patron saint of dogs and falsely accused people, among other things.
Etymology
Saint Roch is given different names in various languages: (Arabic: روكز; Albanian: Shën Rroku; German and Latin: Rochus; Occitan: Ròc; Valencian: Roc; Italian: Rocco; French: Roch; Maltese: Rokku; Polish: Roch; Spanish, Filipino and Portuguese: Roque; Slovak: Roch or Rochus; Slovene: Rok; Croatian: Rok or Roko; Hungarian: Rókus; Greek: Ρόκκος; Lithuanian: Rokas).
Traditional biography
According to his Acta and his vita in the Golden Legend, he was born at Montpellier, at that time "upon the border of France", as the Golden Legend has it, the son of the noble governor of that city. Even his birth was accounted a miracle, for his noble mother had been barren until she prayed to the Virgin Mary. Miraculously marked from birth with a red cross on his breast that grew as he did, he early began to manifest strict asceticism and great devoutness; on days when his "devout mother fasted twice in the week, and the blessed child Rocke abstained him twice also, when his mother fasted in the week, and would suck his mother but once that day".
