Assemblage on vintage wooden cigar box.  Size 6" x 9".  Features include artist’s photographs of St. Roch Shrine, skeleton key, square peg nail, lavender apothecary bottle with applied cross, vintage rosary, religious medals and Victorian doll parts.  Pressed and dried flowers from artist’s garden.

The Shrine to St. Roch sits inside the Holy Trinity Chapel located in the St. Roch Cemetery in New Orleans.  German immigrants made up a large portion of the New Orleans population and were known to pray to St. Roch in times of plague and illness.  When the yellow fever epidemic of 1868 was taking the lives of New Orleans residents, Father Thevis, priest for the immigrants, also prayed to St. Roch to keep his congregation safe from the plague.  None of his flock perished that year from yellow fever, and as promised to St. Roch, Father Thevis built the Chapel and Cemetery with the help of his parishioners.

Since that time, many have come to pray to St. Roch to heal their illnesses.  They have left small tokens and gifts for his answered prayers. A small gated room to the side of the Chapel houses these gifts or “ex-votos”. These gifts are most curious indeed. Besides the beautifully carved “thanks” and “merci” petite blocks that pave the floor of this small room, there are countless pieces of plaster body parts such as feet, hands, hearts and livers with some inscribed “Thank you St. Roch” or just “Thanks”.  There are braces, crutches, corsets and canes that have also been left by the healed faithful.  And amassed on the floor are assorted crucifixes, Jesus and Virgin Mary icons, handwritten testimonies, rosaries and heart shaped plaster casts engraved with “Thanks”, all testaments to the healing powers of St. Roch.  Inside the Chapel is a statue of St. Roch with his faithful dog. The body of Father Thevis is buried beneath the floor of the Holy Trinity Chapel.  The St. Roch refrain is mounted on the wall of the Holy Trinity Chapel: “Oh help us, oh help us dear St. Roch, do help.”   $65