Among the saints invoked in the Ora Impe­rata issued by the Ca­tholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is “Saint Rock,” confusing a lot of Catholics.

It turns out it’s the English version of St. Roch or San Roque, a 14th-century saint who’s popular in the country, as shown by nume­rous churches and shrines erected in his name, notably the Cathedral of the Diocese of Caloocan.

San Roque has been po­pularly invoked since the Middle Ages against plagues.

According to the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Varagine, the saint was born at Montpellier, and in his 20s, became a mendicant pilgrim for Rome, where he tended to victims of epidemics and effected several miraculous cures.

But he himself contrac­ted a contagious disease and was banished to the woods where the hunting dog became his friend, giving him bread and licking and healing his wound.

This explains the popular iconography of the saint showing his leg wound and a dog with bread on its mouth beside him.

Perhaps the saint’s most popular shrine is the San Rocco in Venice.

Feast of Servite Order

Tomorrow, Feb. 17, is the feast of the Seven Founders of the Servite Order, or the Order of the Servants of Mary (OSM), one of the principal mendicant friar orders along with the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians and Carmelites.

In the Philippines, the Servites are relatively a new order, having arrived here only in the 1980s.

In Tunasan, Muntinlupa, the Servite friars run the very popular Parish Church and Shrine of St. Peregrine Laziosi (d. 1345), himself one of the early Servites. He is the patron saint for persons suffering from cancer, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and severe illnesses.

Very spacious and well designed and maintained, the Church has a relic chapel which enshrines a rib of St. Peregrine, a first-class relic.

Servites also run one of the foremost educational institutions in Muntinlupa, the Marianum, so named after the pontifical Mariological institute of the Servite friars in Rome.

Marianum offers Commission on Higher Education-approved programs, AB Philosophy and AB Religious Education. It also has a senior high school that offers Department of Education-approved academic strands in Accountancy, Business and Management, Humanities and Social Sciences and General Academic.

Marianum holds Marian Studies and Formation classes for aspirants and postulants from different religious congregations every Saturday. It also runs a practical Church music program for choirs from va­rious parish churches.

Marianum College is loca­ted at the back of St. Peregrine Parish Shrine, National Road, Tunasan, Muntinlupa City, tel. 88346437 or 0917889-4116.

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