Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1909 — ANNUAL FEAST OF ST. ROCHE [ARTICLE]

ANNUAL FEAST OF ST. ROCHE

Ten Thousand Persons Celebrate Four Masses Upon This Occasion. Pittsburg, Aug. 20.— Unique in the way of celebrations was the annual feast of St. Roche, patron saint against pestilence and disease, participated in by more than 10,000 persons, who celebrated four masses. The celebration known to Pittsburgera as “Cholera day,” was established in 1552. During the cholera plague in 1848-49, members of the Catholic church here gathered together and made solemn vows that if the plague was driven away they would conduct special services each year in memory of their deliverance.