Grand Pardon de Notre-Dame de la Tronchaye

On Sunday, August 16, worshippers, pilgrims, locals, and visitors are expected from early morning in the cobbled streets of Rochefort-en-Terre to celebrate Our Lady of La Tronchaye. While the official program is confirmed in the weeks leading up to the event, here are the traditional highlights of the Pardon: Marian vigil on Saturday evening, August 15, with songs and prayers in Breton and French; Grand procession through the town's flower-adorned streets, with banners and the statue carried by members of the confraternity; Solemn Mass outdoors or in the Collegiate Church of Our Lady of La Tronchaye; Blessing of the sick and families at midday; Return procession and veneration of the statue. As every year, a preparatory novena is celebrated in the days preceding the Pardon, with rosaries, Eucharistic adoration, confessions, and daily Masses at the sanctuary. History of the church: This building dates from the 12th and 16th centuries and has a Flamboyant Gothic façade and a Romanesque bell tower. It is located away from the town center and on a slope. Local tradition recounts that in the 10th century, during the Norman (Viking) invasions, a priest hid a wooden statue of the Virgin and Child inside a hollow tree trunk to protect it from looting. Two centuries later, a shepherdess is said to have found the statue in the same trunk. A church was then built on the very spot where the statue was found. This story even gave the church its name, “Notre-Dame de la Tronchaye” (Our Lady of the Hollow Tree).