San Rocco has been a part of Frank DeFrenza’s life from his childhood in Italy through his adult life in the Chicago area. DeFrenza was born in 1946 in Valenzano, a town outside Bari, Puglia, where San Rocco is the patron saint. “They say because of him the plague didn’t touch Valenzano,” DeFrenza says.
San Rocco was a 14th-century French noble who gave away his wealth to live as a pilgrim, miraculously healing plague victims across Italy. After contracting the plague himself, he was saved by a hunting dog that brought him food and licked his wounds in a forest cave. When he returned home, ravaged by the disease, his family didn’t recognize him and threw him in prison as a spy.
