Shrine of St. Roch

Saint Roch is known as the Patron Saint of Plague Victims. He is believed to have spared a whole congregation from the Yellow Fever Epidemics of both 1867 and 1878 in New Orleans. In return for his works of wonder, the Cemetery and Shrine of St. Roch were constructed. Each year, thousands would travel in order to visit the shrine and pray to the Patron Saint. To thank him for his miraculous cures, grateful visitors would leave everything from notes to crutches to plaster limbs. While in New Orleans last week, M and I ventured to the Shrine early on the morning of Ash Wednesday.