The Black Death

Saints and Plague: Religious Devotion During the Pandemic

The Black Death stimulated an intense and sometimes desperate devotion to saints who were believed to offer protection against the plague. The cult of plague saints — particularly Saint Roch, Saint Sebastian, and the Virgin Mary — flourished in the decades following the pandemic, generating new forms of religious art, new devotional practices, and new institutions of lay piety.

The Theology of Intercession

Medieval Christian theology held that the saints, having achieved salvation and entered Heaven, could intercede with God on behalf of the living. The faithful could petition specific saints for protection, healing, or deliverance from particular dangers, and the saints would carry these petitions to God. This theology of intercession provided a framework for understanding the role of saints in the context of the plague: if God had sent the plague as a punishment, the saints could petition God for mercy on behalf of the afflicted.

The choice of which saint to invoke was guided by tradition, by the saint’s biography, and by the perceived correspondence between the saint’s attributes and the nature of the danger. Saints who had suffered from disease, who had cared for the sick, or who had been associated with miraculous healings were particularly favoured as intercessors against the plague.

Saint Sebastian

Saint Sebastian, a Roman soldier who was martyred by being shot with arrows during the persecution of Christians under the Emperor Diocletian, was one of the most popular plague saints. The association between Sebastian and the plague was based on the metaphor of arrows: just as Sebastian had been pierced by arrows, so the faithful were pierced by the “arrows” of plague. The metaphor was ancient — it appeared in the writings of Gregory of Tours in the sixth century — and it was reinforced by the visual tradition of depicting Sebastian pierced with arrows.

Devotion to Saint Sebastian intensified during the Black Death. Churches and chapels were dedicated to him, altarpieces were commissioned depicting his martyrdom, and processions were organised in his honour. The saint was invoked in prayers, litanies, and votive masses, and his feast day (20 January) became an occasion for special observances in plague-affected communities.

Saint Roch

Saint Roch (San Rocco), a fourteenth-century pilgrim who was believed to have cared for plague victims and to have been miraculously healed of the disease himself, became the most popular plague saint in the post-plague period. Roch was typically depicted as a pilgrim, wearing a broad-brimmed hat and carrying a staff, lifting his tunic to reveal a plague bubo on his thigh. A dog, which was said to have brought him bread during his illness, often accompanied him.

The cult of Saint Roch spread rapidly across Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Churches, chapels, and hospitals were dedicated to him, and confraternities bearing his name were established in cities and towns across the continent. The saint was particularly popular in Italy, where his cult was promoted by the Franciscan order, and in southern France, where his birthplace (Montpellier) was a major pilgrimage destination.

The Virgin Mary

The Virgin Mary, as the mother of Christ and the most powerful intercessor in the Christian pantheon, was widely invoked for protection against the plague. The image of the Madonna of Mercy — in which the Virgin spreads her cloak over a group of supplicants, sheltering them from the arrows of divine wrath — became one of the most popular devotional images of the post-plague period.

The Virgin was also associated with specific plague-related miracles. In several cities, the cessation of plague was attributed to the intercession of the Virgin, and votive churches and chapels were built in gratitude. The church of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, built in the seventeenth century following a plague outbreak, is one of the most famous examples of this tradition.

Plague Votive Offerings

The practice of making votive offerings — promises to God or the saints in exchange for deliverance from danger — was widespread during the plague. Individuals who survived the disease, or who were spared while others around them perished, often attributed their survival to the intercession of a particular saint and made a votive offering in gratitude. These offerings took many forms: the commissioning of a painting or sculpture, the endowment of a chapel or mass, the donation of a candle or ex-voto, or the undertaking of a pilgrimage.

The proliferation of votive offerings in the post-plague period is one of the most visible expressions of the religious anxiety generated by the pandemic. Churches across Europe were filled with ex-votos — paintings, sculptures, and objects donated in gratitude for deliverance from the plague — and the visual culture of the post-plague period was shaped in part by this practice.

Plague Processions and Festivals

The Church organised processions and festivals in honour of plague saints as a means of collective intercession. These events, in which the entire community participated, were designed to demonstrate the community’s devotion and to petition the saints for protection. Relics of plague saints were carried through the streets, hymns were sung, and prayers were offered at churches and shrines along the route.

The effectiveness of these processions in preventing the spread of plague was, from a modern perspective, negligible — indeed, the crowding of people in streets and churches may have facilitated the transmission of pneumonic plague. However, the processions served important social and psychological functions, providing a structured framework for collective action and a sense of communal solidarity in the face of an otherwise uncontrollable threat.