And sticking to my wonderful Morbihan breton no 56 of my lovely Bretagne and in my belle France. I like to take you back again to a village part of a town that I passed every day to work and shopping. Of course, have written before but briefly in my blog.
And now its time to tell you a bit more on Mériadec and its Church of Saint Mériadec!
The territory of Plumergat, which includes Mériadec which has an almost triangular configuration, is bounded to the north by Brandivy and Pluvigner, to the west by Brech, to the south by Pluneret, to the east by Plescop and Grand-Champ. Mériadec, whose territory extends over the towns of Plumergat and Pluneret,(see posts) was a parish branch of Plumergat. It became a parish in 1912. It is still part of Plumergat.
The chapel dedicated to Saint-Mériadec, bishop of Vannes in 659, located at the current location of the parking park, was built around 1383. Falling into ruin, it was demolished in 1938. The parish church was built in 1913, as Church of Saint Mériadec.
Mériadec has a long history since parish registers date back to 1607. In the past, Mériadec was famous for its horse fair on April 19, the largest in Morbihan! The Mériadec village was created in 1874 by the Administration with a special assistant responsible for performing the functions of registrar. There have been several attempts to create a town in Mériadec: the last one was in the 1930s.
Today, the western facade of the Church of Saint Mériadec ,still awaits its bell tower, the plan of which had been drawn up by the architect Caubert, but whose funding had been refused by the general council in 1923. The altarpiece-tabernacle from the 17C, in gilded wood, would come from the old Sainte-Anne-d’Auray Chapel. The primitive chapel was a rectangular building, quite archaic, completed in 1383, where one saw some Romanesque windows in semicircular and others in pointed arches. The sand pit of the choir bore an inscription, hardly readable today. A small square steeple covered with slates, stood at the entrance to the choir. To the south was a small square porch, very simple, with a stone bench on either side. The chapel was covered with a rather crude frame and had been enriched with beautiful 17C wooden altarpieces from the Carmelite convent of Sainte-Anne.
The city of Plumergat on the village of Mériadec in French: City of Plumergat on the village of Mériadec
An interesting story of Saint Mériadec , I like to tell for the history I like
The first name of Mériadec comes from both Latin and Old Breton: Merus in Latin, and iad, in Bretonic meaning pure sang. This word is still in use in Welsh, although it has fallen into disuse, the synonym tal ,same word as in Breton, being almost exclusively used. It is however attested in the old Welsh dictionaries, so this name is made up of Mer-iad-oc, namely: The one whose forehead is pure.
We find traces of the cult of Saint Mériadec on both sides of the Channel, both in islands of Brittany and in mainland Brittany. He was born either in Great or in little Britain, in one case, he was born in Armorica (old Bretagne name), and would have gone overseas ; a sea that we still call today in Breton Mor Breizh, namely the Sea of Brittany, (just out from the Gulf of Morbihan today) sea which for centuries was more a hyphen than an impenetrable border. According to other traditions, it is the other way around; he was born in Great Britain and later came to Armorica. This is what is recorded in the Beunans Meriasek (life of Mériadec) written in 1504 in insular Cornouailles (Cornwall).
Like many Breton saints, his reputation as a miracle worker and his preaching attracted crowds, so much so that on the death of Hingwethen, Bishop of Vannes, he was chosen clero and populo (by the clergy and the people) as Bishop of Vannes. He is honored mainly at Stival, near Pontivy. He is also patron of Mériadec , in Bieuzy-Lanvaux and Baden, where chapels are dedicated to him, as well as in Saint-Jean-du-Doigt, where part of his skull is preserved. in a very beautiful reliquary.
The house of Rohan, one of the oldest and most powerful families in Brittany, maintains a very intimate relationship with Saint Mériadec, for better or for worse. This recovery of Saint Mériadec by the Rohans comes from a homonymy with the legendary Conan Mériadec, lieutenant of Magnus Maximus, (Macsen Wledig in Welsh) Roman general, who with his Breton legions, took Rome and became ephemeral emperor of the West in 387, having defeated the Emperor Gratian before being overthrown and executed in his turn by Theodosius, Emperor of the East allied to Valentinian II, legitimate Emperor of the West.
The megalomania of Maximus and a good part of the Breton aristocracy, by dragging the Bretons away from their homes and stripping Brittany of its best troops, will precipitate the fall of the Western Roman Empire as well as the invasion. of the island of Brittany by the Anglo-Saxons in the following century. So much so that his grandson, named Arthur, (1187-1203, posthumous son of Constance of Brittany, and of Geoffroy Plantagenêt, Duke of Brittany, brother of Richard Coeur de Lion(Lionhearted) and Jean sans terre (without lands) was considered by his subjects of both sides of the Channel as fulfilling the Arthurian prophecies. It must be said that Henri II was a scholar, a very good connoisseur of history and knew how to use it to unify all the peoples he governed.
The mythical king of the Bretons who is also according to legend, father of Saint Helena, mother of Constantine I, first Christian emperor and ipso facto ancestor of Saint Mériadec. This ancestry is totally fanciful and does not fit chronologically, however.
There you go a nice fanciful story and with many truths to it on the life of Saint Mériadec. I must say I live close to these towns sort of like my living area. Hope you enjoy and do pass by Mériadec on the D19 road !
And remember , happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 