San Roque, charity without limits

  • 2017
San Roque, patron of the pilgrims

San Roque was born in Montpellier, France, in the year 1295 . His father Juan, the governor of Montpellier, and his mother Libera, received in the royal palace the boy who had insistently asked God. The newborn showed on the chest and on the left shoulder a reddish cross on the skin, as engraved with fire, a sign of his wonderful destiny (Herrero Garc a, 1959, p.407 ). Roque, virtuous forever, began young university studies in medicine and was orphaned at 20 years of age. It was then that he accepted the Rule of the Third Franciscan Order and began the stage of his life in which he gave himself charitably without measuring the consequences and without establishing any kind of limits.

Be given without measuring the consequences

GOODS

The first thing he delivered were the large assets he had inherited from his parents. He sold everything he had and distributed it to the poor, embracing sister poverty as San Francisco had taught and listening to Jesus' words: If you want be perfect, go and sell what you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me ” (Matthew 19, 21).

HEALTH

Freed from material ties and knowing that in Italy the people were being decimated by the plague, he went with his big heart where the sick, the dying and the anguished abounded. Without stopping in fear of contagion he plunged into misery like an unknown pilgrim relieving pain and healing many people and burying others. " To many he managed to get them the cure just by making the sign of the Holy Cross on his forehead" (http://www.santosmilagrosos.com.ar/sanroque/).

In Rome without the Pope, the afflicted saw in San Roque's exceptional charity the opportunity for a healing miracle and the mercy of God. The unknown and poor Roque acquired an unwanted prestige for him, but justly deserved for being a faithful instrument of Christ . His humility rejected the honor and drove him away from the Italian city where he had eased the suffering of the dying and unfortunate for three years.

From Rome Roque went to Plasencia where he arrived as an unknown pilgrim and went to the hospital to help the sick . There he was infected and his skin was covered with a disgusting sore. The admired saint became a despised patient and was expelled from the hospital and the city of Plasencia. In this way Roque began to share the sufferings of his beloved Christ.

Sick, he entered and sheltered in a forest, to avoid fatigue and burdens on other people. But God was not going to leave him without assistance: every morning he sent him a dog that brought him food and licked his sores. The saint of Montpellier had given his life and his health to relieve the sick. Only a tremendously generous being is capable of so much, is capable of the greatest love, that of giving health and "life for friends" (John 15, 13).

FREEDOM

Eight years after his departure Roque returned to his hometown, Montpellier, and there no one recognized his face disfigured by illness and work. France was at war and the son of the former governor was received as a spy. Roque did not defend himself before the judge and the latter decided to imprison him. He gave his freedom to the one who wanted to snatch it by listening to the voice of Christ who said Let him who hurts you on the cheek, also present the other; and to him who takes off his cloak, do not deny him also the robe ” (Luke 6, 29). At 32 years of age he died after five years of unjust imprisonment who in life gave everything: his assets, his health, his freedom, the hours of his days in service to others, his heart to Christ and his soul to the Father.

San Roque de Montpellier

Feet lavatory

This French saint admirably imitated Jesus. To that Jesus who leaned down to wash the dirty feet of his followers and purified them with his love. To that Jesus who did the work that the slaves did, who got in full with our misery, and by his mercy we were able to sit at the table clean to relate to God and our fellow men lovingly. Christ said "It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick" (Matthew 9:12) and San Roque not only heard the words of his Master but put them into practice to the extreme.

AUGUST 16TH

On August 16, the day when the Church celebrates the memory of San Roque, let us thank and learn from this wonderful and humble saint who intercedes for the dying, sick, stinking and afflicted and heals them with the Spirit of God today.

May his generous and loving heart teach ours to be a little more kind so that we can stop and kneel where misery and pain abound.

Sources and bibliography

The Bible

Miguel Herrero García, San Roque, in Christian Year, Volume III, Madrid, Ed. Católica (BAC 185), 1959, pp. 407-410.

Franciscan Directory http://www.franciscanos.org/bac/sanroque.html [Query: 7/23/2017].

Santos Milagrosos http://www.santosmilagrosos.com.ar/sanroque/ [Query: 7/23/2017].

Editor: Cecilia Wechsler, collaborator of the Great White Brotherhood hermandadblanca.org

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