Sainte-Lucie aux Branges Chapel

At the time it was mentioned during the pastoral visit in 1633, this chapel was dedicated to St Francis of Assisi. The painting showing the stigmata of St Francis now hangs in St Roch’s Chapel. In the 18th century, it would be dedicated to St Lucy. In 1790, Mass was celebrated there for her feast day. The chapel was restored by Guy Turbil, who owned the house next door, in 1971. There were once several houses in the hamlet or village of Les Branges. This name refers to larch trees in local dialect.Who is St Lucy?Born into a very wealthy noble family from Syracuse, Lucy (who died between 303 and 310) lived with her mother Eutychia and venerated St Agatha. As her mother suffered from an inflammatory bowel syndrome and blood loss, one day Lucy decided to take her to Agatha’s tomb, in Catania, to ask for healing. The next day, Eutychia recovered. Following this healing, Lucy asked her mother’s permission to distribute to the poor everything that her father had left her. Both women then began giving all that they owned to the poor, a little each day. But Eutychia had promised Lucy’s hand in marriage to a young man who flew into a fit of rage when he heard that his fiancée wished to remain a virgin and was selling her fortune, which he had his eyes on, to give to the poor. So he denounced her to the Consul Pascasius, as an enemy of the deities of the Roman Empire. Refusing to give up her Christian faith, Lucy was sent to a brothel then martyred. Her name comes from the Latin word lux (which means light), and that is why she is associated with many festivals of light.