Through A Glass Darkly

I discover that there are many fans of stained glass windows from my post yesterday so here is another window from the Saint Sauveur church in Dinan.

This one shows the life of Saint Roch (click to enlarge) and I think the reason I chose this particular window was because Roch was the patron saint of the town. However when I tried to check this out I did not find anything apart from his life story and that he was born in Montpelier. He also shares this window with Saint Fiacre, an Irish saint, and Saint Crepin. It must have been quite nice to while a way a long sermon looking at the saints stories.

What else did I learn, well Saint Roch is also invoked for the protection against plague, his day is August 16th and he is often portrayed with a dog, which in legend licked his wound and brought him bread when struck down by the plague. Therefore he is also the patron saint of dogs and those who love them.

Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine

I also found a saying associated with him "Apres Saint-Roch aiguise ton soc" the literal translation is 'after Saint-Roch sharpen your plowshare', I wonder if that mean that it is harvest time soon after the saint's day, or it could mean something completely different. A saying like 'il pleut des cords' (its raining rope) has an equivalent in english of, its coming down like stair rods, but I don't think we have one like the Saint Roch saying.