All-School Mass

Fr. Vincent Capuano, S.J. celebrated St. Roch Gonzalez, S.J. and his companions during all-school Mass on Monday (Nov. 16) in St. Anthony’s Chapel at Jesuit High School.

St. Roch Gonzalez, S.J. lived in Paraguay in the late 16^th and early 17^th century. A missionary who worked closely with the native Guarini people, he was martyred in 1628. He became the first Paraguayan saint in 1988, as well as the first native-born person from the Americas to be canonized.

In 2013, dozens of Jesuit students on a pilgrimage to World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro spent several days in Paraguay, visiting the numerous Jesuit reductions established by St. Roch Gonzalez, S.J. The students venerated his heart in the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion.

View a photo gallery from Monday’s Mass below, and below that are two photos from the Jesuit 2013 pilgrimage to World Youth Day, the first of the veneration of St. Roch Gonzalez, S.J., and the second of a visit to the remains of a reduction established 400 years ago by St. Roch Gonzalez, S.J.