St Roque Protect Us

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A glance at epidemics in Malta By James Licari

Throughout history Malta – like other European countries – was struck by epidemics. The first mention of an epidemic in Malta was during the medieval era. Due to Malta’s geographical location and its strategic trading position, diseases brought from overseas were inevitable.

In the fifteenth century the plague hit Malta. Church burials were thought to contribute to such diseases and so became prohibited during epidemics. Open air cemeteries started to be created on the outskirts of various towns and villages. Some villages also utilised small chapels outside their locality for such burials. Many of these chapels and cemeteries were dedicated to St Roque.

A plague epidemic occurred in the late thirteenth century and some of the victims were buried in a cemetery in Rabat, Gozo. In October 1347, a Genoese ship carried the plague to Messina in Sicily and the Black Death pandemic started to spread throughout Europe. It is believed that a year later in 1348 this reached the shores of Malta through trade from Sicily. Little is known about the effects of the pandemic in Malta.

In 1427-28, 1453, 1501 and 1519 further plague epidemics hit the island. In 1523 the municipal authority of Mdina discovered that the plague had entered on a captured galleon. The owners refused to burn it and its cargo, yet the authorities ordered it to be burnt and the crew were isolated from the rest of the population. Despite these efforts, the plague broke out in Birgu, which was also isolated from the rest of the country.

There were also other epidemics besides the plague, for example an outbreak of ‘morbus di la punta’ (possibly scarlet fever) between 1453 and November 1455, which caused many deaths.

The Council of Trent (1545-65) encouraged burial in parish churches. It was customary for the casket to be left in the church before burial, sometimes until the following day with a lapse of 24 hours. This custom was changed

Cemeteries and nearby chapels were often dedicated to St Roque, believed to have been healed from the plague through divine providence, by a dog licking his wounds.

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Above: 1. St Roque Cottonera [In school grounds]; 2. Painting of St Roque in the chapel of St Roque, Three Churches Street, Balzan; 3. St Roque niche, Balzan [Dolphin Centre]; 4. St Roque Niche, central Balzan; 5. St Roque Niche, Luqa; 6. St Roque, Valletta- requiring sponsorship for professional conservation.

Right: 1. St Roque niche, Qormi- Prior to an intervention and after restoration and necessary chromatic reconstruction. due to the spread of disease and epidemics and, ‘during burial, the dead person would be lowered into the tomb and then quicklime (calcina or biancheggina) would be scattered over the corpse to accelerate decomposition’ (Cassar 2012, 21).

Church burials were eventually prohibited by canon law, although in Malta the practice continued for a while longer. The earliest known extra-mural cemeteries are dated 1592, caused by the outbreak of the plague while church burials were stopped temporarily. Further cemeteries developed during the 167576 plague and that of 1813. In 1830 there was an outburst of smallpox, and cholera spread in 1837, 1865 and 1887.

Such cemeteries and nearby chapels were often dedicated to St Roque, who was believed to have been healed from the plague through divine providence, by a dog licking his wounds.

Many communities and families erected free-standing statues or niche statues on the façades and corners of their houses. This was partly due to religious devotions, but it was also believed that such representations within the streets would ward off the devil as well as bad events. Almost every town or village has a statue or chapel dedicated to St Roque.

Some of the largest statues of St Roque in Malta have been studied and conserved by Ingrid Ross and the present author, in collaboration with Din l-Art Ħelwa. This includes the statue attributed to Vincenzo Dimech, by the side of Santa Rita chapel in Birkirkara, which was formerly a free-standing monument sited further down the road.

Another example is the statue sited in a corner opposite St Roque chapel in ĦażŻebbug. The statue is in Main Street, the former principal street of the village leading from the De Rohan gate to the parish church, and was a free-standing statue erected prior to the eighteenth century, before buildings were constructed around it. It is held to be the largest statue dedicated to St Roque in Malta. Its creator is unknown but according to an account by Ciappara in his Storia del Zebbug e sua Parrocchia (1882), the image resembles an

extraordinary well-built priest who lived in the vicinity. The same account notes the date of an indulgence in the year 1736.

The monument consists of the standing figure of St Roque and a dog by his feet. The saint wears a hat behind his head, an undergarment, coat, mantle, thick socks and closed shoes. There is also a metallic halo attached behind his head. The saint has a beard and long hair. He carries a shell on his left pectoral and a gourd beneath his left arm, which was used to collect and drink water. In his left arm he holds a staff, a sign of pilgrimage. He is posed with his right hand outstretched pointing towards the plague sore on his leg. The weight of the figure appears to be borne on the right leg while the left leg is slightly bent and showing his bleeding sore. The dog is seated on the saint’s right side holding a bun of bread in his mouth. This statue was conserved around six years ago by conservator-restorers Ingrid Ross together with the present author.

St Roque was a confessor believed to have been born around 1295 and the Catholic faith commemorates his death on the 16th August. He is specifically invoked against various infectious diseases, including the bubonic plague, cholera, other epidemics, knee problems and skin diseases. He was named the patron saint of bachelors, dogs, surgeons, gravediggers, pilgrims, diseased cattle, invalids, falsely accused people, tile-makers, second-hand dealers and apothecaries. He is usually represented wearing a pilgrim’s habit, often lifting his tunic to demonstrate the plague sores on his thigh and accompanied by a dog carrying a loaf of bread in its mouth.

It is not entirely certain whether St Roque was a real historical personage. He might have been a fictitious character from Church legends. In the research of Belgian historian Pierre Bolle (2001), St Roque is suggested to

References: Charles Cassar, Stones of Faith: Tombstones, Funeral Rites and Customs at the Gozo Matrice (Malta: Midsea Books, 2012); Samantha Lorenz, Buried in Malta: A Glance at History and Tradition, OMERTAA, 2011, 507; Charles Savona Ventura, The Medical History of the Maltese Islands: Medieval (2020); and, personal communication in 2012 with the late Michael Bonnici, former custodian of the St Roque chapel in Żebbuġ under guardianship of Din l-Art Ħelwa.

James Licari is a professional conservator-restorer

Above: St Roque statue, Birkirkara- Before and after conservation

have been a hagiographical double of a more ancient saint, known as Saint Racho of Autun (died c. 660). This latter saint was invoked in prayer against storms. Bolle suggests that this derivative of the saint’s name and invocation is a linguistic development. If the first syllable of the word in French and Italian ‘tempeste’ (storm) is dropped we are left with ‘peste’ (plague). Medieval medicine attributed the cause of illness, including the plague, to the corruption of air that affects the equilibrium inside the human body.

Bolle does not, however, completely disprove historical data that a Saint Roch of Montpellier existed. It is believed that a French prisoner, who attained a certain popularity for his saintliness in Piacenza and Sarmato, died in Voghera in Italy in the fourteenth century. It is documented that the 1391 calendar of Voghera states that a mid-summer festival in honour of Sancti Rochi (St Roch of Montpellier on 16th August) and not Santi Rochonis (St Racho of Autun on 25th January), clearly reflecting the existence of two different saints. Therefore St Roch of Montpellier developed a following as early as 1391. The body of St Roch of Montpellier is believed to be located in Voghera in 1469 and has been venerated ever since. This led to the further deduction that St Roch probably died in Voghera in Italy and not in Montpellier in France. n

Above: St Roque statue, Zebbug - Before conservation