The Oratory of Saint Cénéré (
French for ''Oratoire de Saint-Céneré'') is an
oratory in the village of
Saulges
Saulges () is a commune in the Mayenne department in north-western France.
Gallery
File:Saulges - Chapelle St Pierre ext 1.jpg, Saint Peter's Church in Saulges
File:Saulges ermitage St Cénéré.jpg, The oratory of Saint Cénéré at the edge ...
, in the municipality of Saulges in the
Mayenne
Mayenne () is a landlocked department in northwest France named after the river Mayenne. Mayenne is part of the administrative region of Pays de la Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Manche, Orne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, and Ille-et ...
department,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
History
The oratory takes its name from
Saint Céneré (or Cerenico), a Benedictine monk born in
Spoleto
Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome.
History
Spolet ...
in the 7th century; he was sent by
Pope Martin I
Pope Martin I ( la, Martinus I, el, Πάπας Μαρτίνος; between 590 and 600 – 16 September 655), also known as Martin the Confessor, was the bishop of Rome from 21 July 649 to his death 16 September 655. He served as Pope Theodore I's ...
to preach in
Merovingian Gaul
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...
with his brother,
Serenicus
Serenicus (french: link=no, Céneri or ; ) was an Italian Benedictine monk. He was an early evangelist in Normandy, and founded a monastery and a chapel in a village in Orne that later took the name of Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei.
Serenicus is vener ...
, and with him he arrived in the diocese of Le Mans, in Saulges, around 649–650. He founded a Christian community which built the .
The cave served as a hermitage for the monk. The oratory, located from the town, was built in 1849 to protect the statue of the saint. The chapel is located where Céneré is said to have caused a spring to issue from the rock. The oratory was rebuilt in stone in 1849 by the Marquis de la Rochelambert, who owned the land, with the assistance of the Saulges factory. The factory became the owner in 1860 when Montguyon was sold to Adrien Rousseau of Montfrand. The grotto was outfitted in 1903 and the east building was added in 1933.
Architecture
Access to the oratory is facilitated by two stairways leaning against the hill; the
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
that extends the chapel is covered by a roof terrace. The interior of the chapel is decorated with a painting attributed to , which depicts Céneré healing the blind and the paralyzed; four
stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
windows from the end of the
19th century
The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium.
The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolis ...
came from the dismantling of the Plessis chapel and represent the
Sacred Heart
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus ( la, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum) is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devo ...
,
the Virgin,
Saint Joseph
Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers of ...
and
Saint Alexander Saint Alexander may refer to one of several saints including:
*Pope Alexander I (died 115), saint and pope
*See Epipodius and Alexander for Saint Alexander, martyred in Lyon, 178 AD
*Alexander of Rome (died c. 289), Christian martyr
*Alexander of B ...
. They were made by the Carmel workshop in
Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...
.
In the cave below, the 18th-century statue of Saint Cénéré in polychrome wood, restored in 2005, surmounts the spring described by Grosse Dupéron. This continuous
stream
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...
of water has given Saint Cèneré the nickname "the saint who pees" or "the little pissing saint."
Gallery
File:Saint Cenere little fountain.jpg, The spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season), a season of the year
* Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy
* Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water
* Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...
as seen by visitors
File:Saint Céneré.JPG, Other side of the spring.
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
*
{{Authority control
Churches in Mayenne
Roman Catholic churches in France
Churches completed in 1933