ANGELS AND MINISTERS OP GRACE 259
size and strength, the worshipper at his shrine was believed to acquire some of his physical power.
The
cure of diseases of the tongue was the province of St. Catherine of
Alexandria (November 25), who was famed for her eloquence as well as
for her devotion to the study of the Scriptures.
St.
Roch, who was born in Montpelier toward the end of the thirteenth
century (d. August 16, 1327), is regarded as the special guardian of
those afflicted with plague or pestilence. In his lifetime he went
from place to place ministering to those who suffered from the plague
until finally he himself succumbed to this malady. So great was the
repute of St. Roch's curative powers that the Venetians are said to
have stolen his body from Montpelier, where it was interred, and
transported it to Venice, that they might have ever-present help in the
numerous pestilences from which this city suffered, because of the
constant commercial intercourse with the East.
Another
saint who was invoked for help in plague and pestilence was St.
Sebastian (January 20), born in Nar-bonne in Gaul. In this case the
story of the saint's martyrdom gave rise to the belief in his curative
powers, for the legend tells us that he was transfixed with arrows, and
these missiles were regarded as symbols of the plague. We have an
illustration of this old belief in the first book of Homer's Iliad,
where the pestilence that visited the army of the Greeks is represented
as due to the shafts sped from Apollo's silver bow.
Although
no curative powers are attributed to them, no one of English speech
should forget SS. Crispin and Cris-pian, on whose day the battle of
Agincourt was fought, in 1415. The old feud between France and England
has been long forgotten, the rivalry between these nations has given
place to a close friendship, and there is no trace of animosity
