St. Roch

Circa 1510
Stained glass
Metropolitan Museum of Art

The saint is identified by the inscription in his halo, sanctus rochus confessor, and by his attributes, a pilgrim's staff and a lesion on his left thigh. He is sometimes pictured beardless, as here, but more often with a short beard.

The museum's label identifies the coat of arms with three blackbirds as belonging to a family named "Merle," the French word for "blackbird." The label further suggests that the young woman in the foreground may be Gudula van Merle, who died in 1502 of plague, the disease most associated with St. Roch.

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Photographed at the cathedral by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.