Places of worship in Europe
Sainte-Anne-d’Auray Basilica
THE SITE
The Sainte-Anne-d’Auray basilica is a minor basilica located in Sainte-Anne-d’Auray in Brittany (France). It receives many visitors because the shrine of Sainte-Anne-d’Auray is the most important place of pilgrimage of Brittany, welcoming more than 800 000 visitors a year, the majority of which are pilgrims. Each year, 20 to 30,000 pilgrims attend the great pardon of St. Anne on July 26, which ranks third among French pilgrimages after Lourdes and Lisieux.
Welcome to Sainte-Anne d’Auray, first place of Breton pilgrimage, where Saint Anne, the grandmother of Jesus, appeared to a plowman, Yvon Nicolazic, and said in Breton: “Me zo Anna mamm Mari”. “I am the mother of Mary”.
It was July 25, 1624, eve of the feast of St. Anne. On March 7 following the call of Saint Anne, Yvon Nicolazic discovers in his Bocenno field a statue of St. Anne from an old chapel fallen into ruin. It was the sign authenticating the truth of the apparitions.
