Ex-voto
Au jour du départ, Marie
L’aventureux nautonier
A vos pieds, Vierge Marie,
Sent le besoin de prier.
Refrain
Notre Dame de la Garde,
Patronne des matelots
Soyez notre sauvegarde
Contre la fureur des flots
Gardez bien nos matelots
A votre autel bonne mère
Nous viendrons tous au retour
Déposer notre prière
Et chanter avec amour
Le naufrage de la Perle – Anonyme – Notre-Dame de la Garde
Above the altar is a large painting offered as an ex-voto in memory of the brig La Perle, which was caught in a violent storm on 27 May 1836.
Eight sailors were lost in the storm.
In the foreground of the painting, a sailor thrown into the raging waves swims towards a spar, a long piece of wood torn from the boat. The Virgin appeared to a young ship’s boy to right the sinking ship.
This young ship’s boy was the nephew of Anne-Thérèse Guérin, born in Etables in 1798, better known as Mother Théodore, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of Providence in the United States. Mother Théodore was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1998 and canonised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.
“The brig La Perle, from Portrieux, sailed to Newfoundland in heavy weather, carrying wood and pitch to repair and caulk the Breton boats anchored there during the cod drying season. It was not a Newfoundland sailing ship dedicated to cod fishing.
A brig is a sailboat with only two masts: a large aft mast and a smaller foremast, rigged entirely with square sails, with a brigantine aft.
Pitch is a kind of tar used to coat hemp or flax oakum to seal gaps in boat hulls (caulking).
A large ex-voto on the same subject was painted after the tragedy, commissioned by another rescued sailor.
This oil on wood is in the church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Cour in Lantic.
The text directly on the painting relates the shipwreck and the rescue:
“On its way to Newfoundland, this storm-beaten vessel received such a violent gale at 8 o’clock in the morning that the hull was ripped open, the yards sunk more than five feet into the water, and everything on deck was swept away, along with eight crewmen.
In this state of distress, where all human help was powerless, they turned to heaven, invoked Mary and the whole crew made a vow to the Mother of God, who immediately answered their prayer. The Blessed Virgin, all shining with light, suddenly righted the ship and deigned to appear to a young child of the crew, who on seeing her exclaimed that he saw a beautiful white lady righting the ship with her arm[…]”.
