There’s a saint’s shrine around the corner from where I’m volunteering. It’s in a really pretty cemetery. It’s St. Roch, pronounced Rock with a kind of gagging sound at the end. I looked him up on the Internet and apparently he’s the patron saint of diseased cattle, knee problems, skin rashes, tile makers, dogs, and afflicted persons.
The reason there’s a shrine here is because some time way back when there was an outbreak of yellow fever in New Orleans. A priest decided to pray to St. Roch and people were miraculously cured. So they built him a shrine.
The shrine is pretty cool. There are the 12 Stations of the Cross around the cemetery. The tombs are catholic so they represent German, Irish, and Italian immigrants and they go back to the early 1800s.
There’s also a triptych on the altar and a spooky statue of a dying guy, I’m guessing St. Roch.

In a little room off to the side of the altar there are a bunch of leg braces and prosthetic limbs from people that were cured. I don’t really know how the prosthetic limb people were cured. I kind of doubt they grew back their whole arm, but whatever. There was no holy water there but I might check the chapel on Sunday. So if you’re feeling afflicted let me know and I’ll score you some patented St. Roch’s holy water™, specially blessed for people with knee problems trying to milk diseased cattle.