Église Sainte-Catherine de Fierbois

Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois

The place was already a pilgrimage before Joan. A 15th-century account relates that in 1375 an inhabitant of the hamlet, Jean Godefroy, paralysed for seven years, had a way cut with an axe as far as a ruined chapel of Saint Catherine and came back from it cured; the miracles followed, and as Catherine of Alexandria passed for the patron saint of prisoners, the sanctuary drew the captives delivered from a country at war. In 1415 Marshal Boucicaut founded an almonry there to lodge the pilgrims; the building is still there. On 2 March 1429, making her way up to Chinon with her six companions, Joan stopped here and had a letter written to the king. It was from Fierbois that she asked shortly afterwards for a sword marked with five crosses, which was found near the altar. The tradition that makes it the weapon of Charles Martel, left there after 732, appears only after the epic of 1429: it came to dress the fact, not to found it. The chapel burned in 1440; the Flamboyant church that replaced it, thirty-four metres long beneath a bell-tower of forty-one, was undertaken at the instigation of Hélie de Bourdeilles, a consultor in the nullification trial, and finished under Louis XII.

Wikipédia — Église Sainte-Catherine de Fierbois ↗

Getting there : At Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois, between Tours and Sainte-Maure, by the D 910 or the A 10 exit. The church, in the centre of the village, is open during the day; the spot where tradition places the discovery of the sword is marked on the right as one enters. The former almonry of Boucicaut, opposite, houses the offices of the commune.

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

Ambient sound