Pilgrimage Pontmain

- Date of publication 08-16-2004
Friday, 6th August, was a day of pilgrimage for the associates and sisters. The first stage was Pontmain. The story of the apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1871 was told in the barn, a visit was made to the Parish Church and then the Eucharist was celebrated in the Basilica. The associates found that Mary’s message in Pontmain: “But pray my children, my Son allows Himself to be touched,” is just as simple as that of Perrine.

Friday, 6th August, was a day of pilgrimage for the associates and sisters. The first stage was Pontmain. The story of the apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1871 was told in the barn, a visit was made to the Parish Church and then the Eucharist was celebrated in the Basilica. The associates found that Mary’s message in Pontmain: “But pray my children, my Son allows Himself to be touched,” is just as simple as that of Perrine.
In the afternoon, the three coaches carrying our group of pilgrims moved off in the footsteps of our martyred sisters. The first stop was at St. Pierre des Landes where sisters Francoise Tréhet and Jeanne Veron taught and cared for the sick. It was there that they were arrested and condemned for having cared for members of the opposition. When this accusation was made one of them replied: “all are my brothers.” A further stop was at St. Mars sur la Futaie, at the Church where Francoise Tréhet was baptised. Nearby we looked at a local curiosity: a hawthorn bush dating from the 3rd century, capable of telling the history of the area during the past 17 centuries. The coaches then moved on to Ernée where members of the opposition were imprisoned; there our sisters were also incarcerated. The local Church was transformed in to a Temple to Reason and a revolutionary court. Condemned to death our two sisters were guillotined on the Town Hall Square in 1794. On the steps of the altar in the Church we placed a crown of palms and flowers in honour of our martyred sisters.
Tired, moved, touched after this historical journey, we returned to Evron to the host families. Tomorrow was to be another long day with, among other things, a solemn mass to bring to an end this week in honour of Perrine, and then on the Sunday the final profession of our three African sisters.

A coordinating team for all the festivities of this past week has been at work for the past 18 months. They have tried to foresee …..even the unforeseeable. Many thanks to these men and women, sisters and laypeople, for their devotion and ingenuity.
Our thanks also to all those who gave of their time and energy so that this celebration might give honour to Perrine Thulard, a woman from Maine, and a woman of faith, foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of O.L. of Evron. May her initial intuition: “whatever you did to the least of my brethren you did it to me,” inspire many more generations of religious and sisters throughout the world.

Articles classified by community1- All the congregation2- in France3- in England4- in Canada5- in Africa6- in Peru

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