Grotte et chapelle Saint-Colomban

Sainte-Marie-en-Chanois

On the lower slopes of the Vosges saônoises, above the Breuchin valley, a grotto and a modest chapel preserve the memory of the most illustrious of the Irish monks. Around 585-590, Columbanus, settled with his companions in the nearby ruins of Annegray, was looking for a place to pray alone during the great feasts. His biographer Jonas of Bobbio recounts that he found a cave in the rock — already occupied by a bear. At the saint's request, the animal left its den without the least hostility, and Columbanus made the cave his hermitage, living on wild herbs and small berries, the 'bullugas' that the local dialect turned into our word 'brimbelles' (bilberries). To spare a young monk the chore of fetching water from the valley, he is said to have made a spring gush from the depths of the grotto: it still flows today, and local people still come to draw water reputed to heal. The vault has partly collapsed, but one can climb over the fallen blocks to reach the spring. Next to it, the neo-Romanesque chapel rebuilt in 1872 by four neighbouring communes replaces a 16th-century building; it is built over 'Saint Columbanus's bed', the stone where pilgrims used to lie down to obtain healing. Maintained until the Revolution by the Benedictines of Luxeuil, the site remains a quiet place of pilgrimage and one of the most moving stops on the European Way of Saint Columbanus.

Getting there : From the village of Sainte-Marie-en-Chanois (Breuchin valley, between Luxeuil-les-Bains and Faucogney), follow the signs for 'chapelle Saint-Colomban'; a walk up a forest path. Picnic tables on site.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound