Église Saint-Patern de Vannes

Vannes

Patern is the oldest and the least Breton of the seven: a Gallo-Roman bishop, consecrated around 465 at the council of Vannes, whom the hagiographers of the 12th century confused with a Welsh monk in order to enlist him among the founders. His body, carried off before the Northmen by the abbot of Rhuys, ended at Issoudun, in the Berry; Bishop Guéthenoc (1182-1220) brought part of it home, and it was around these relics, in the church of the suburb that tradition holds to be built over his tomb, that the pilgrims pressed in the 14th century. Around 1400 a long lawsuit set the parishioners of Saint-Patern against the canons of the cathedral, helped by the duke's sergeants, over who would display the relics and receive the offerings; in it one sees the parishioners keeping watch, barricading themselves in the church and throwing the offerings out of the windows. One document of that lawsuit speaks of the "pilgrims who make the pilgrimage of the Seven Saints of Brittany, commonly called Trobreiz, in Latin circuitus Britannie": it is the earliest attestation of the name. Julien Trévédy drew from the accounts of 1401-1402 a figure of twenty to thirty thousand pilgrims a year; historians see in them above all the faithful of the diocese. The preaching of Vincent Ferrer, who died at Vannes in 1419, then drew the crowds away to the cathedral. The Romanesque church having collapsed in 1721, the present baroque building was rebuilt from 1727; its great stair and its lantern tower, begun in 1769, were not completed until 1826.

Wikipédia — Église Saint-Patern de Vannes ↗

Getting there : From the cathedral, go out by the porte Prison and follow the rue Saint-Patern (five minutes' walk); the church is open during the day. Neighbourhood market on Saturday morning; the place Cabello car park is close by.

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

Ambient sound