Chapelle Saint-Roch à Notre-Dame de Niort

An orphan born in Montpellier in the 13th century, Roch left for Rome as a pilgrim. Sick of the plague, he retreats in a forest where he is fed by a dog who brings him every day a loaf of bread stolen from his master’s table. Intrigued, the latter follows him and discovers the wounded saint. Back in his homeland, he is disfigured by the mortifications suffered. Arrested, he refuses to say his name. Mistaken for a spy in a city in the middle of civil war, he is thrown in prison where he dies after five years. The day before his death, he revealed to a priest his identity and his kinship with the lord of the castle where he was incarcerated.

The plaster statue of the nineteenth century. depicts the stigma of the plague on his leg and a dog holding a loaf of bread in his mouth. He wears a crazy hat from a shell, a pilgrim (coat), a bumblebee (stick), a gourd to drink and a bag to eat.