A brief review of the representations of Saint Roque in Navarre, mostly sculptural, from the 16th century or the beginning of the following century, shows us a very popular saint against the historical plagues, particularly that of 1599, a date that would definitively mark his notoriety, displacing even Saint Sebastian, the traditional protector against the plague. San Roque had in his favor the fact that he had cared for and cured plague victims and had been infected by that dreaded disease, in a context such as that of the Counter-Reformation, in which exemplarity was a rising value in the models of sanctity. In Navarre, unlike in other European lands, his cult was not obscured by another rival, St. Charles Borromeo himself, for his exemplary behavior in Milan during the plague that devastated the city between 1576 and 1578.

The images of St. Roque, besides serving to invoke his protection, were also a reference and example of his abnegation, submission, altruism and sacrifice in favor of the sick whom he cared for, fed and cured. Tradition speaks of recoveries by means of the sign of the holy cross, the same one that, according to legend, he had on his own body since his birth.
 

A legendary hagiography

In his Theatro crítico universal (1746), Father Benito Feijoo, Benedictine, enlightened and polygrapher of the XVIII century, affirmed that "Saint Roque is as old as the plague .... was canonized only by the voice of the people". In the popular Christian Year of Jean Croisset (1656-1738), we read: "Few saints began to be worshipped as soon as our Roque. From the very day of his burial began the particular devotion to his sepulcher.... then God began to manifest the glory and worth of his servant with a prodigious multitude of miracles, particularly with those who in time of plague implored his powerful protection. Because of this experience, most of the cities and towns chose him as one of their patrons, voting to keep as a holiday the day of his death, which was August 16". 

Regarding his life, there is no unanimity on the time in which he lived. Traditionally, he was placed between 1284 and 1319, but these dates are delayed by other authors until 1348/49 and 1378/79, so that his life trajectory would have contemplated the consequences of the black plague in the middle of the 14th century. What his hagiographies agree on is that he was born in Montpellier, that he was the son of the governor of the city and that at the age of twenty he distributed as much as he could among the poor, leaving other goods that he could not dispose of in the hands of his uncle, who was also governor of the city. From his small homeland he left as a pilgrim to Rome, finding on his way cities ravaged by the plague, such as Acquapendente or Cesena, where he busily cared for the sick. He stayed in the Eternal City for three years, confessing to Cardinal Britonico, putting an end to the plague and meeting with Benedict XI. Roque fell ill in Piacenza and took refuge in a forest outside the city so as not to infect anyone, surviving thanks to a miraculous source , to an angel who comforted and cured him and to a dog that, daily, brought him bread that he took from the table of his master, Gottardo Pallastrelli, who, after observing the behavior of the dog for several days, discovered Roque, helped him and became his disciple. The end of his life was tragic since, on returning to his homeland, he was mistaken for a spy and died in prison, without his uncle the governor having been able to recognize him. His tomb soon became a place of pilgrimage because of the miracles worked through his intercession.

Cult on the rise since the end of the Age average, corroborated in the XVI century.

As a traveler, hero and thaumaturge he attracted the attention of the sick, the powerful, simple people, patrons and artists. He enjoyed a great cult in Europe, especially in his native France. In the French Bourbonate there were 114 parishes dedicated to him in the 16th century. 

The 15th century was decisive in the projection of her figure. On the one hand, the cessation of the plague through her intercession on the occasion of the Council of Constance (1414) or the Council of Ferrara (1439), caused her cult to spread throughout central and southern Italy, where 28 municipalities bear her name and 3,000 churches are dedicated to her. The second event that popularized his figure was the transfer of part of his relics to Venice in 1485.

Since the end of the 15th century, he appears among the fourteen auxiliary saints against the plague and in many places he replaced St. Sebastian in the patronage against the great epidemics. The church gradually granted him liturgical and worship honors, with the inclusion in the Roman Missal of his own Mass at the end of the 15th century. Gregory XIII introduced him in the Roman Martyrology in 1584 and Urban VIII confirmed his immemorial cult with his own official document and Mass in 1629.

To his defense against the plague must be added, also in Navarre, his protection of domestic animals, which he protected against epizootic diseases, and the vine, for immunizing it against phylloxera, which is why the saint is carried in procession in Aibar, Abárzuza or Los Arcos with grapevines and grapes.
 

Confraternities, hermitages and vows

Contrary to what we might suppose, their confraternities were not abundant in Navarra, with a few studied by Gregorio Silanes. In the Pamplona Shrine of Our Lady of Fair Love there was one of them at least since 1612. In Viana another one was founded, by agreement municipal, in 1567, after the scourge of the previous year. That of Peralta dated from 1678 and that of Lesaca was formed exclusively by farmers, because the saint was also considered the protector of the animals of work of the countryside. Esteban Orta has studied that of Murchante, founded in 1602 and approved by the ecclesiastical authority the following year. The preserved books of conference proceedings give an account of the issue of confraternities, cults and customs such as the "cup of the saint", in reference to the refreshment offered annually by the stewards, despite the reluctance of the religious authorities.

Some localities had Shrine of Our Lady of Fair Love of his invocation, most of which have disappeared. We will mention those of Aibar, Arano, Astrain, Cabanillas, Cintruénigo, Lezáun, Monteagudo, Pamplona and Valtierra. The most outstanding historically were, without a doubt, those of Pamplona and Cintruénigo. The first of these was erected in 1600 at the initiative of the regiment of the capital of Navarre, after overcoming the plague of 1599, in which the municipal authorities had entrusted themselves to patron saint San Fermín, San Sebastián and San Roque. It was built with the project of Francisco Fratín, royal works engineer. The price of the construction was set at 460 ducats, with the condition of using stone carved in the Roman style, and the municipal authorities were responsible for the designation of hermits. The building was demolished in 1797, although the votive processions continued until 1836.

The one in Cintruénigo was demolished more than four decades ago, was of large dimensions, and had existed at least since 1570, although its last factory was almost completely rebuilt in 1638 by the masters Pedro Gómez and Francisco Saldueña, preserving only the pillars of the old one. The Wayside Cross and the façade were added in 1677. The City Council attended the mass on the day of the saint's feast day and on the eve a Salve was sung there.

The vows and patronages of some localities propitiated the existence of many of their images, being parallel phenomena the historical facts and the representations of the saint. In Olite, the vow dates from 1566, when it was agreed in council and to the sound of a bell to keep his feast day with a procession. 

In Cascante it was a votive day since an imprecise date in the XVI century and the local hospital was under his patronage. In 1599, its council proclaimed as patrons the aforementioned saint, St. Anne and St. Francis of Paula, asking "God our Lord to appease his wrath and lift the punishment". In 1606, the so-called Miracle of St. Roque took place in Cascante, which the vicar noted as follows: "Year 1606, on August 16, a sortija (drawing) of water was held at the place of the hospital of Cascante, and the next day of the same year many neighbors of the place said that while the lamp of the chapel of the said hospital was dead, when the doors were closed, it was suddenly found lit by the work of God".

In Corella, in 1602, after the plague that devastated it, it was necessary to "take 2.000 ducats in census on its own property and income to pay with them the salaries of the doctor, surgeon, apothecary and undertakers", at the same time that the town council made a solemn oath to have Saint Roque by patron saint and lawyer promising "for us and in the name of all this town to keep his holy day and feast perpetually as the day of Sunday and to make a solemn procession on the said day and we will try to make a Shrine of Our Lady of Fair Love, altarpiece or bulk as it seems more convenient". By virtue of this agreement, the chapel and altarpiece were built in the parish of the Rosary, of which the old late-Romanesque sculpture remains, in addition to the eighteenth-century one that presides over the altarpiece.

In Valtierra, to thank him for his protection, people went annually to his Shrine of Our Lady of Fair Love. Professor Esteban Orta, in his study of the pests in the Ribera region, states that in other towns, such as Cabanillas, Murchante, Buñuel and Monteagudo, he was proclaimed as the main patron saint .
 

Images: from the late Gothic to the Baroque period

The sculptures of the saint abound, in a very special way, in the altarpieces of the XVI century. Their issue exceeds one hundred and some are of A quality. He was usually placed, for obvious reasons of protection against the plague, next to Saint Sebastian or making pendant with him, as it happens in altarpieces of one or the other or in numerous major altarpieces that preside over the temples. Thus it happens, among other cases in Iturgoyen, Puente la Reina, Abárzuza, Armañanzas, Desojo, Etayo, Uztárroz and Viana.

In addition to the altarpieces of his hermitages, numerous temples had their own altars dedicated to the popular thaumaturge, as it happened in the parishes of Abaigar, Abárzuza, Armañanzas, Lapoblación, Murchante, Rosario de Corella, Eraul -today in the Museum of the Incarnation of Corella- and the basilica of the Yugo de Arguedas.

A great issue of sculptures -some of them for processions- and some paintings have survived to the present day. Iconographically, it has some general attributes of the pilgrims, such as the attire, the cloak, the wide-brimmed hat, the staff, the gourd and the bag, and other particular ones such as the pestilent bubo -sometimes replaced by a deep sore-, the dog with the bread, the angel that helps him, the sore and, sometimes the crossed keys -generally in the hat- that speak of his pilgrimage to Rome, although in some sculptures he wears the shells of the pilgrim from Santiago de Compostela, by loan iconographic of the images of Santiago. The dog reminds us of the animal that helped him daily with a loaf of bread that he snatched from the kitchens of his owner Gottardo Pallastrelli. Sometimes, the dog licks his sore for parallelism with the evangelical parable of the poor Lazarus. The angel appears in his hagiographies, both warning him that he was going to catch the plague and comforting him in the forest. Frequently, he becomes a nursing angel who heals his wound. His presence with the representations of the saint is late, becoming generalized already in plenary session of the Executive Council XVI century. In the internship totality of his rich iconography, the saint rolls up his tunic or cloak to show the ulcer on his leg, which his biographers place in the groin, but which for decency was moved to the thigh.

Of particular interest are the early late Gothic carvings of Eguiarreta and Bargota, the expressive ones of the second third of the 16th century of San Martín de Unx, Cintruénigo, Valtierra or the delicate relief of Abaigar. The Romanesque sculpture left the largest issue of representations with a very repeated outline of small head and very worked anatomies, especially in Tierra Estella, by the hand of the Imberto, Pedro de Gabiría or Martín de Morgota. Among the most outstanding examples, we can mention those of Cabredo, Andosilla, Arróniz, Desojo, Garísoain or Etayo. From the mid-17th century are the carvings of Genevilla, Olejua or San Pedro de Puente la Reina and fully baroque, from the 18th century, those of Los Arcos, Sesma, Cárcar and Santiago de Puente la Reina.

The painting has left some remarkable representations, from the tables of the Renaissance altarpieces of Cizur Mayor, Elcano or Cadreita to the painting of the parish of San Lorenzo de Pamplona, signed by the Valencian painter Bienvenido Bru, in 1885, year of the great cholera epidemic. His image also appears in some Renaissance crucifixes such as that of Irurre or the Taconera of Pamplona, while his relics are found in silver pieces of Legarda and Muruzábal, as well as in the silver-lined foot of the image of Los Arcos.
 

A small cycle of his life in his Abárzuza altarpiece

In Navarre, the only cycle with four scenes from the life of the saint can be seen in the reliefs of the altarpiece of his invocation in the parish of Abárzuza, the work of the masters Juan Imberto I and his son Pedro, established in Estella in 1565. From left to right, four passages follow one after the other: the care of the sick before the administrator of the hospital of Acquapendente; the confession in Rome with Cardinal Britonico and the pope begging him for prayers when Roque visited him. The fourth presents the saint in a hut in the woods, together with the owner of the dog, Gottardo Pallastrelli, in front of the castle in which the latter resided to avoid contagion. Next to the scenes, there are several reliefs of allegories, in the netos that, for the most part, agree to the life and work of the saint: justice, prudence, penitence, faith, prayer, fortitude or constancy.

We would like to express our gratitude to the people who have kindly provided us with their photographs to illustrate this article, especially to María Jesús Munárriz, from Abárzuza, for her continuous attentions.