Église Sainte-Solange et Champ du Martyre

Sainte-Solange

The village, formerly Saint-Martin-du-Crot, took towards the end of the 12th century the name of the shepherdess it venerates. Tradition tells that at the end of the 9th century Solange kept her sheep at the place called Le Pré Verdier, near the hamlet of Villemont, and that she had vowed her virginity to Christ. Bernard of Gothia, son of the count of Bourges, Poitiers and Auvergne, wished to marry her; met with her refusal, he pursued her and cut off her head, on 10 May 878 according to the date retained by the cult. The popular account adds that the severed head pronounced three times the name of her divine spouse, and that the girl herself carried it as far as the church, where she was buried. Her remains were held to work cures of the blind and of deaf-mutes, and the people of Berry invoked her in public calamities, notably against drought: the last recorded procession of this kind dates from 1730. The relics, transferred several times (last translation in 1511, silver shrine given by Bourges in 1657), were scattered at the Revolution in 1793. Saint Solange is today the patron saint of Berry, celebrated on 10 May, and a chapel built in 1874 marks the presumed site of the martyrdom; since 2018 it has housed a stone statue of the saint with her lamb. Every Whit Monday, girls in shepherdess costume accompany the shrine in procession from the village to the Champ du Martyre.

Histoire de sainte Solange — commune de Sainte-Solange ↗

Getting there : Village about 15 km north-east of Bourges; the church can be visited in the village centre. The chapel of the Champ du Martyre is reached on foot from the village, less than a kilometre away, near the stream called the Ouatier; the hamlet of Villemont, where a cross is the setting for a mass in August, is 2 km away. The great occasion is the Whit Monday procession, which carries the relics from the village to the Champ du Martyre.

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

Ambient sound