Saint-Herbot, le sanctuaire des bêtes à cornes

Plonévez-du-Faou

Saint Herbot has neither file, nor bull, nor canonisation process: the Church does not recognise him officially, and his very existence is not established. Tradition brings him from the island of Britain, a hermit in the forest of Berrien, then settled at Le Rusquec in Loqueffret, where he lived by trading in livestock. This vagueness has never troubled anyone, because he had a competence: he protects horned beasts, he brings the milk and he makes the butter set. His feast is kept on 26 May, he is invoked in some hundred and twenty churches and chapels of Cornouaille and the Léon, and he is recognised by the pat of butter he holds in his hand. His sanctuary is a valley. The building, raised again from 1389 after the destruction of the War of Succession, enlarged by the south porch from 1498 and by the bell tower from 1516, belongs to the school of Pont-Croix by its almost semicircular arcades, a rare archaism for the period. Inside, a Renaissance chancel screen, three stained-glass windows of 1556 attributed to the master glazier Thomas Quémener, the saint's tomb with his recumbent effigy, and two stone tables: on them the pilgrims laid the hairs cut from their cows' tails. The calvary in the enclosure dates from 1575.

Wikipédia — Église Saint-Herbot de Plonévez-du-Faou ↗

Getting there : By the D 764 between Huelgoat and Châteauneuf-du-Faou, signposted "Saint-Herbot"; a small car park in front of the enclosure. The building is open in season, during the day; the calvary and the enclosure are freely accessible all year. The pardon is held in spring, around the saint's feast.

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

Ambient sound