Date

Circa 1910

This is a view before the stone statue was vandalized in 1934. Saint Guirec (circa 6th century), was a Welsh monk who sought to establish a monastery in Celtic Brittany. A shrine first built in the twelfth century called L'Oratoire de Saint-Guirec (the Oratory of Saint Guirec) stands in the bay at Ploumanac'h (with a chapel on the facing beach). The small shrine is accessible only at low tide; the original wooden statue of the saint (ca. 1350) dressed as a bishop was moved to the chapel in 1904 and has been replaced by a granite statue. The shrine is a listed historic monument since 1903. Female pilgrims have come for centuries to call upon the prayerful intercession of the monk saint for their seafaring husbands' safety.