Saint Rocco's native town was well known for its university. Since 1221, its school of medicine conferred diplomas on students who came from every corner of Europe. They were esteemed everywhere. But the university was even older than that: a letter of Saint Bernard, dated around 1153, mentions its existence and its independence.

Unlike the majority of other faculties, that of Montpellier escaped the control of the bishop who lived in Maguelonne.

The teachers, like the students, were mainly laymen. For this reason, they were not bound by the law which forbade clergy to spill blood and to cut flesh. According to M. Wolff, "in the 14th century, the teachers practiced dissection," so much so, that medicine and surgery were studied together. Saint Roch must have been at a good school! His biographies point out that he used a lancet (a flat steel surgical instrument) to open abscesses caused by the plague.

From 1289, the university of Montpellier, with the recommendation of Pope Nicholas V, possessed a school of Roman law which was equally renowned. Pope Urban V was a student, then a professor, there.

Today the town has about 30,00 students. The schools that of science has gained great importance and the services have been regrouped on the periphery, at the foot of the Chenes-Colomieres. But the two oldest schools (medicine and law) are still in the center of the town.

The school of medicine is in the former Benedictine monastery whose first stone was laid by Pope Urban V when Saint Rocco was 14.