Stave chapel Rue du Chaunois - Faulx-les-Tombes

This stake chapel or "Borne Potale" is dedicated to St-Roch.

A "Borne Potale" is a Belgicism for a niche on a column or a pedestal containing the image of a saint. Sometimes leaning against a wall, embedded in a hedge or simply built on the edge of a field. It is therefore a niche whose sole purpose is to house one or more statues of saints or saints, a cross, ....

St. Roch or Roch of Montpellier is one of the six plague saints.
As soon as he could, he gave his inherited wealth to the poor and left on foot for Rome in 1317. Along the way he nursed the sick , preferably those suffering from the plague, and soon made a name for himself because he healed some by making the sign of the cross over them. On the return journey he himself was struck by the plague in Piacenza. In iconography he is therefore often depicted with an open leg . He retreated to a forest and was healed by an angel.
On his return to Montpellier he was captured as a spy on the orders of his uncle. He spent five years in prison until his death. As he died, an angel appeared in shining light and proclaimed that all who called on Roch against the plague would be healed. This story immediately circulated in Montpellier. His uncle had his body removed with great respect and had many funeral services dedicated as an admission of guilt.

Willem Vandenameele