c.1350-c.1378. Late medieval miracle-worker. Little trustworthy information is available on his life, despite early biographies which unfortunately are filled with legend and chronological errors. Born in Montpellier, France, he went to Italy where he became famous for his ability to bring about miraculous cures of the plague by prayer and the sign of the cross. After his death he was widely venerated in France and Italy, and a cult of St. Roch developed. He became the saint to invoke against the plague, and Luther mentioned him in this context in his denunciation of medieval saint worship in his Large Catechism. Roch's relics were taken to Venice in 1485, where a shrine was erected in his honor.