La fontaine Sainte-Anne

The cult of Sainte-Anne is said to have two origins: one Provençal, the other Irish. The first asserts that the body of Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, was transported to Provence by the region's first apostles. They entrusted her relics to Saint Auspice, the first bishop of Apt (Vaucluse). He hid them in the town to protect them from invasion. The relics were miraculously rediscovered at Easter 792, in the presence of Charlemagne, who recorded the events in a letter to Pope Adrian I. The second hypothesis asserts that the cult of Saint Anne originated with the arrival of Irish monks in Armorica in the 5th century. Locally, it was the monks of Saint Philibert who introduced the cult of Saint Anne, around the 9th century, during the evangelization of Vue. These Celtic monks were still in touch with monasteries in Ireland. But the famous fountain is much older, dating back to the 7th century. At that time, the original pagan cult was in honor of Ana, the Celtic goddess of prosperity, fertility and regeneration. Historians believe that Christians then acculturated the pagan cult of the deity Ana. From Ana to Saint Anne, mother of Mary, there was only one step to make, and it was easily taken by the great evangelizer of the Pays de Retz, Saint Philbert. Thus, Vue, a small town built in the middle of the marshes, celebrates Sainte-Anne as its patron saint. In 1584, the cult of Saint Anne was made official by Pope Gregory XIII, who fixed the date of the feast day as July 26. In July 1846, Vue received a relic of Saint Anne from Apt, which was placed in the reliquary of the church of Saint Anne, in front of the altar of the Blessed Virgin. A public fountain was built on the remains of the Gallic fountain in the village of Châtellerie de Vue. Over time, it acquired a reputation for curing ophthalmic diseases. Dedicated to Saint Anne, a ceremony is held here every year on July 26, or on the Sunday closest to Saint Anne's Day: the pardon de Vue. Pilgrims gather to attend mass and take part in the procession. After two miracles recognized by the bishop's office in the mid-17th century, the fountain's reputation grew. Sainte-Anne thus became a renowned place of pilgrimage in the heart of the Pays de Retz, and remains an institution to this day. The miracles that took place at Vue were certified by the parish masters and notaries. They attested to the fact that the fountain's waters had ophthalmic properties: on May 29, 1657, Jacques Burgaud, a Challans resident in his fifties, recovered his sight, despite having been blind all his life, or for six years following an illness, depending on the source. on July 28, 1659, 26-year-old Jeanne Grassineau, a resident of Beauvoir-sur-Mer, regained the use of her legs as she set out on foot from the pardon de Vue, after eight years of disability, according to contemporary accounts. Long before these miracles, the fountain had already been welcoming pilgrims. And the tradition lives on... During the drought of 1976, pilgrims flocked to the Sainte-Anne fountain. Everyone prayed for rain. The fountain site is freely accessible to the public, at the end of the long cedar alley.