THREE PATRON SAINTS OF PLAGUES AND PANDEMICS

In recent weeks, the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease has led millions of people around the world to worry about their health. For centuries, Catholics have been counting on Patrons Saints to protect them from infectious disease. Among the Communion of Saints these three Saints are considered the three most prominent as Patron Saints of Plagues and Pandemics.

Saint Gregory the Great

In the year 589 several plagues, a lost harvest, and a series of severe floods all conspired to give the city of Rome a disastrous year. In 590 this series of disasters was crowned with the death of Pope Pelagius II, another victim of the plague. At this time, the election of the pope was undertaken by the clergy and the citizens of Rome. Gregory was unanimously elected. Gregory, however, had no desire to be pope and even less desire to leave the peace of the cloister of St. Andrew’s monastery and so he wrote to the Emperor Maurice asking him not to confirm the election

While waiting for the emperor’s reply, Gregory was nevertheless responsible for the welfare of the city of Rome. As the plague that had killed Pope Pelagius II was still raging, Gregory ordered that there be a great procession of the people of Rome to do penance, beg pardon from God, and pray for the end of the plague. As a result, seven simultaneous immense processions wound through the streets of Rome and converged on the Basilica of St. Mary Major on the Esquiline Hill. Gregory preached throughout and urged on the people’s devotion. A legend records that the Archangel Michael appeared atop the mausoleum of the Emperor Hadrian and sheathed his sword signifying the end of the plague. Thus, the mausoleum is today known as Castel Sant’ Angelo (Holy Angel Castle).

Novena Prayer to St. Gregory the Great

Saint Gregory, you are known as a Patron Saint of Plagues and for your zeal for the Catholic faith, love of liturgy, and compassion and mercy toward those in need. Please help and guide us so that we may share in these virtues and thereby bring Jesus into the hearts of our families and all we encounter. We especially ask for blessings on our parish family, our priests and our deacons.

I also ask that you graciously intercede for me before God so that I might be granted the special assistance and graces that I seek (state personal intentions here.). Help me to live as a faithful child of God and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven.

St. Gregory the Great pray for us. Amen

SAINT ROCH (or Saint Rocco)

The plague disappeared everywhere he went.

During the 14th century there was a plague in Italy, and St. Roch came upon one of the towns most affected by it.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, he “devoted himself to the plague-stricken, curing them with the sign of the cross. He next visited Cesena and other neighboring cities and then Rome. Everywhere the terrible scourge disappeared before his miraculous power.”

He eventually contracted the plague himself, but after retreating to the forest, he was also cured from the disease.

After his death, St. Roch’s intercession was invoked when a plague struck Germany in the 15th century.

In 1414, during the Council of Constance, the plague having broken out in that city, the Fathers of the Council ordered public prayers and processions in honor of the saint, and immediately the plague ceased.

Time and time again he was invoked during various medieval plagues and is why he is labeled a patron against plagues.

Prayer to Saint Roch

O Blessed Saint Roch,

Patron of the sick,

Have pity on those

Who lie upon a bed of suffering.

Your power was so great

When you were in this world,

That by the sign of the Cross,

Many were healed of their diseases.

Now that you are in heaven,

Your power is not less.

Offer, then, to God

Our sighs and tears

And obtain for us that health we seek

Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

(Repeat the following 3 times)

Saint Roch, pray for us,

That we may be preserved

From all diseases of body and soul.

SAINT SEBASTION

In times of plague and pestilence following the fall of the Roman Empire, a great devotion to Saint Sebastian emerged. According to Legenda Aurea, Sebastian was born in the third century near present-day Milan and served as a Roman soldier under the Emperor Diocletian, a renowned persecutor of Christians. The section on Saint Sebastian says that he converted to Christianity after seeing the bravery of Christian martyrs and eventually compelled close companions to convert, including a Roman prefect who was cured of a plague when he renounced his pagan idols. When Diocletian learned of his conversion, Sebastian was sentenced to death at the hands of archers, but he survived the execution, returning to Diocletian’s court to rebuke him in the name of God, as depicted in Veronese’s St. Sebastian Reproving Diocletian. Upon this act, Diocletian ordered the soldiers to club Sebastian to death, and Sebastian died a Christian martyr. Because his intercession to God contributed to the cure of the Roman prefect, Sebastian became widely associated with the cure of plagues, especially in cities throughout the Italian Peninsula.

POWERFUL PRAYER OF SAINT SEBASTIAN

Glorious martyr Saint Sebastian, Soldier of Christ and an example of a Christian.

Today we come to ask for your intercession at the throne of the Lord Jesus, our Savior, for whom you gave life.

You who lived faith and persevered to the end, asked Jesus for us so that we may be witnesses to the love of God.

You who have stood firm in the words of Jesus, you have asked of Him for us to increase our hope in the resurrection.

You who have lived charity towards the brethren, I have asked Jesus to increase our love for all.

Finally, glorious martyr Saint Sebastian, protect us against plague, hunger, and war;

defend our plantations and our flocks that are gifts of God for our good, for the good of all.

And defend us from sin which is the greatest evil, the cause of all others.

So be it..

Amen.