A little history of Notre-Dame-des-Portes
And also
The tops
The church of Châteauneuf
The current church (Notre-Dame-des-Portes in French) dates back to 1892.
A hoods’ lair!
Notre-Dame-des-Portes was named after a small Virgin Mary statue, displaying on the city’s ramparts during wars of Religion, to protect Châteauneuf’s inhabitants.
Did it work? We don’t know, but the terrible crook La Fontenelle passed by Châteauneuf, so we wonder!
The Breton plundered the little town.
Another crook, Yves du Liscouët, plundered Châteauneuf at the same time. He had about 300 men at his service, only Protestant men. Some of them went towards the chapel of Our-Lady.
Inside, they forced the tabernacle and found a sacred host. One Huguenot took it, threw it on the ground and wanted to crush it, but a priest turned up.
He took the host and received Communion! Furious, the Protestant insulted the priest and stabbed him with his knife...
A silhouette in the Breton night
In short! Mary small statue was found in the trunk of a big oak.
A legend says some nights, in the wood surrounding the church, we can see Notre-Dame-des-Portes roaming in her immaculate dress, with a bright halo around her…
An apparition synonym of luck and wealth, say gossips!
Notre-Dames-des-Portes’s pardon
The pardon? A typically Breton religious celebration! The one of Our-Lady-of-Doors was immortalized by Nabi painter Paul Sérusier (Gauguin’s friend, who lived in Châteauneuf).
It takes place every year in August, on 3 days. We have a pardon for sick persons, then a Mass in Breton, then a procession where the Virgin is carried by men, then the next day by women...