Edito

Welcome to saint-Anne d'Auray, Brittany's most important  pilgrimage site, where saint  Anne, the grandmother of Jesus, appeared to a ploughman, Yvon Nicolazic, and  said to her in Breton: " Me zo Anna mamm Mari", “ I am the mother of Mary ".

That was on July 25th, 1624, the eve of the Feast of St. Anne. The next  7th  March, following St. Anne's call, Yvon Nicolazic discovered  a statue of Saint Anne in the ruins of a chapel in his field at Bocenno. It was the sign giving proof of the truth of the apparitions.

 
From that day forward, pilgrims came in droves to this place then called "Keranna",  or “the village of Anne”, proving that St. Anne was honoured in this place even before the apparitions, a fact borne out by the presence of the  old chapel stones among which the statue was found.

With  nearly 400 years of history, the pilgrimage retains its vitality by trying to remain faithful to the message from heaven announced here and by responding to the calls, requests, demands and needs of pilgrims today.

Among the millions of pilgrims who have come here since 1625, the most famous is  Blessed John Paul II, a pilgrim to Sainte-Anne d'Auray on September 20th , 1996. He renewed the message in front of the 160,000 pilgrims congregated before him at  Mass and gave a message of encouragement to young families gathered in the afternoon in the memorial park .

Saint-Anne d' Auray is a place of gathering, healing, hope and comfort.

Father André Guillevic
Rector of the Sanctuary