Since the sixteenth century, the Scuola has given special attention to the celebration of the patron saint’s feast day, a day on which, at the time of the Republic, the andata, that is, the visit, of the Doge to the Church and the Scuola was also made, a visit of which there are records as early as 1523. The famous painting by Canaletto (c. 1735), now at the National Gallery in London, depicts a moment of the complex celebrations, when the Doge, after attending Mass, accompanied by the Signoria and ambassadors, leaves the church of San Rocco, stopping in front of the Scuola decorated for the occasion. If, for centuries now, the Doge’s visit – an extraordinary privilege granted by the highest authority of the Republic to worthily venerate the relics of the Saint contra pestem – has been just a memory, even today, on the occasion of August 16, the Scuola makes special arrangements outside and inside its buildings: the tenton del dose is erected, the Sala dell’Albergo is decorated with 18th-century apparatuses, a different atmosphere is breathed and more activity ferments from the usual, culminating in the Pontifical Mass in honor of St. Roch and a concert.
