The Saint Austreberthe chapel

Convert those who have strayed! In the 4th century Christianity was gradually taking over the Normandy population. Evangelising hermits and bishops dedicated themselves to the fight against paganism, especially in the countryside where the peasants remained firmly attached to their former beliefs. Those who do not believe in God were so-called pagans.

Even if enticement took priority over constraint, certain Christian missionaries used a hard hand. At first the clergy frowned upon the interest the parishioners took in the worship of water and endeavoured to destroy the fountains said to be miraculous. However, they changed their mind, preferring to give each fountain the name of a local saint and to build a chapel nearby.

Here then is one of the keys to the Little Tendos enigma.

The little chapel was at first dedicated to Saint Ansbert. This saint was invoked against the fever of which he cured himself by applying the cloth used to wrap the remains of Saint-Ouen. It is thus not surprising that his name was given to this chapel and that the miraculous water that flowed nearby was said to have positive effects. In 1347 and 1348 the terrible Black Death, that was introduced from Crimea by Genoese sailors, spread along the terrestrial, maritime and fluvial commercial routes of Europe. It arrived in Rouen and the region in 1348 and caused the deaths of thousands of  inhabitants.

Like all  villages, Tendos was decimated by the epidemic. To thank God for saving them from the bubonic plague the lords of Bosc built a chapel. The present chapel attests to the 17th century but knowledge of much older origins leads us to believe that it has been heavily modified. Indeed, in 1683, the procurer Tangis addressed a precious document to Monseigneur the Archbishop of Rouen, indicating that ‘the lords of Tendos were the owners of a legacy in Tendos, in the deanery of Ckères, in which there was a chapel, seated in an enclosure, built more than two hundred years ago and dedicated to the glory of God and to Sainte Austreberthe’. 

There have been pilgrimages here for more than five centuries up to the present day.

The celebration first took place on February 10th, then it was changed to February 3rd in the 17th century and finally to February 16th in 1860.

Up until the 19th century pilgrimages were  popular initiatives that were overseen by the clergy. The processions were followed assiduously and devotedly, firstly taking place on Easter Monday and then on Pentecost Monday.

The last one took place on June 4th 1979, directed by Roger LeChevallier, priest of the Fontaine-Le- Bourg parish. After the blessings of the saints and the singing of hymns in honour of the saint, the parishioners placed or knotted little white ribbons around the feet of the statue. Afterwards they liked to fill a little bottle with the healing water from the nearby source which could cure fevers, skin complaints and even haemophilia, according to some witnesses.

This ancestral tradition of the worship of miraculous waters flows naturally from the pagan worship of the waters; an immemorial transmission consisting of codified rituels, gods and goddesses.