Heilige Rochus 1560 - 1586

Johann Sadeler I created this engraving of Saint Roch, sometime in the late 16th century. Sadeler was working in a period of religious reform, when the Catholic church was struggling to maintain its authority in the face of a growing Protestant movement. Images of saints played a vital role in this struggle, as they were seen to embody the values of the church and to offer a powerful connection to the divine. Here, Saint Roch is shown as a compassionate healer, an angel attends to the plague sore on his leg. His staff and dog identify him as a pilgrim. The Church encouraged the worship of saints, to give ordinary people role models and to suggest the possibility of divine intervention in their lives. By studying prints like this, and the archives of the Catholic institutions that commissioned them, we can gain a deeper understanding of the social and religious context in which they were produced, and the purposes they were intended to serve.