The Parish of St Lazarus will be celebrating the Feast of St Roque, “Patron Saint against the Plague,” on Sunday, July 8, 2018 with a Solemn Mass at 9:30 AM to be celebrated by Bishop Stephen Lee, followed by a Procession of St Roque after the Mass at around 10:30 AM.
The procession with the statue of St Roque will go all over some streets of St Lazarus Parish (e.g. Rua Volong, Rua São Miguel, Rua São Roque and Rua Nova de São Lázaro).
Although the Feast of St Roque is on August 17, in Macau it is celebrated always on the second Sunday of July due to a plague that happened in Macau in the past. At that time the Parish of St Lazarus prayed and asked for the protection of God through St Roque’s intercession to set Macau free of the deadly plague and to cure the all the sick people. The prayers were answered and since that time until July 1966, every year on the second Sunday of July a big feast and procession have taken place.
The procession stopped after July 1966, but never the Solemn Mass.
On 2008, due to new infectious diseases that were happening again throughout the world, the Catholics of Macau once again prayed to God through St Roque to protect and save Macau against the new coming diseases. Thus the tradition was revived and the Procession of St Roque was brought back to the streets it used to pass.
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