Berthevin de Parigny

Holy Berthevin or Holy Brévin , would have been born at the village from Orberie, Parigny (Manche), close to Saint-Hilaire-of-Harcouët the.

History

The origin of this name would come from the Germain " bertwin ". The history of Berthevin Saint would have been written with 12th or 13th century by a monk of the Abbaye of the Mount-Saint-Michel.

It was born in IXè century. It is about a clerk member the family of Argence (which gave the name of the place known as " foot of money " in Parigny, in reference to Pierre d' Argence), name of Berthevin.

About the year 900, he lived as a hermit in a cave in edge of the Vicoin, (close to Saint-Berthevin-the-Laval). It is the mininuscule cave of the rock of the Pulpit which measures 15m top and 67m at its base. This rock could have been place of worship druidic before the arrival of Christianity.

Belaillé, the lord of Laval, noticed its virtues; it charged it with ensuring the education of his children. Berthevin discharged its new function with zeal but the company of people of war, coarse like carters, did not agree to him. It was the reason why, as soon as it had the leisure of it; it was going to be withdrawn in its cave there to request and inform the children of the neighborhoods.

The sior Bellailé assessed his qualities very quickly. To advise personal of the lord, the young deacon ends up accepting the superintendence of his house. But this presence of the young man and especially the purity of its manners which contrasted with the reigning disorder, at that time, at the vassal ones of the lord, excited jealousies. One showed it to have dared to make an attempt on the virtue of the Bellailé lady. It was supervised day and night. Surprised requesting in its tiny oratory, the young person man was killed with blows of Dague S and his body projected in Vicoin.

Another tradition indicates it like martyr of the Viking S and canonized its skin was, at the end of a return " miraculous " , trailed by an heifer, and brought back in the church of Parigny.

The body of the young deacon was buried in the cathedral of Lisieux.

Caption, tradition of water

Its godmother, in Orberie, after a vision, had the revelation of the place where it rested. It receipt the order to find and transport the skin of its nephew in Parigny. It made harness two heifers, whose horns, pushed in the night! The animals climbed only the accumulated obstacles, climbed cliffs one does not know too much how because they were vertical, and brought back the body to Parigny… to be buried there.

But on the way of the return, the funeral attachment crossed a hunt, the hind continued by the lord of the place blottit under the carriage bringing back the skin of Berthevin. The hind was saved by the lord. In the place where this hind had lain down, a source spouts out. A miraculous water, obviously, whose water had the capacity to cure the patients. This famous fountain is with Saint-Berthevin-the-Den.

Where the carriage of the saint stopped, where hind etc…, where miraculous source etc…, one builds a church, a parish: Saint Berthevin the Den was thus founded. (a modern stained glass in the church of Saint Berthevin the Den tells this legend)

It is said that it occurred the same history or almost while arriving at Parigny… The funeral carriage crossed a new hunt but this time, the continued hind disappeared. The lord promised to build a church if the animal were returned to him… The hind was undoubtedly retouvée. The cows impatientaient themselves, one of them, giving a blow of horn in the ground. This horn broke, and at the place, spouts out, a source. The legend says that every year it approaches one bent towards the bell-tower of Parigny and when it reaches it is the end of the world. This source feeds out of water the commune of Parigny.

One named Renaud, cured by Berthevin Saint, had built a hut with some steps of the fountain located between the church and Vicoin. It relieved the sick pilgrims in their making run water of the fountain on the head. Later, of the prisoners ensured duty their freedom found Saint Berthevin. They came to offer their chains to him and one says that the weight of all these bonds made the load of two horses.

The new ones been engaged, wanting to hasten the date of their marriage, were to climb the steep slope and dangerous to be able to deposit small wood crosses made near the statuette of the saint.

Relics

The hunting of St Berthevin as well as the horn of the heifer still exist in the church of Parigny.

This horn was appraised in June 1997 by a specialist Caen are born, Michel Rioult which hesitated between the cornillon of Aurochs (urus) or of the domesticated descendants of this wild species, or, of bison. A stained glass of the side chapel of the church of Parigny devoted to Saint-Berthevin, illustrates this legend… A fountain in the same village, known as of St Berthevin, was until the beginning of the 20th century a place of " pélérinage" : the source was judicious to cure various diseases.

A martyrdom dominates the rock of the Pulpit of Berthevin Saint.

Saint Berthevin is honoured as deacon and martyr in the diocese with Laval where he is celebrated the July 11th.

Sources

"the Gazette of the English Channel " October 30th 1998;
Mayenne Mysterious of Gilbert Chaussis. SILOE, 2003.

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