In Pouillon, the harvest festival unites winegrowers and the Church of Champagne
A gentle autumn sun caresses the vines this Sunday morning in the village of Pouillon in Champagne. The hills are silent. In the village, volunteers are already working.
October 12, 2025: the second day of the harvest festival dawns. In the square, an elder prepares the press while, in the church, rehearsals begin. Thirty years since this biannual event which tours the villages of the Saint-Thierry massif has returned to Prouillon!
Mr. Simon, a retired winegrower, remembers: “Thirty years ago, the festival was on September 23-24. We harvested the next day. This year, the harvest was at the end of August and the beginning of September. We’re a month early. In 30 years, we see this more and more often: we see climate change.”
Sticks of Saint Vincent
It is from Adrien, his son, that the procession starts towards the church. Representatives of the different villages are there, in winegrower or grape harvester costume, with the banners of their villages and the sticks of Saint Vincent.
The badge is passed on between winegrowers each year. It represents Saint Vincent, the patron saint of winegrowers, with a grape in his hand, under the evocation of a church arch. Branches run along the handle; in his other hand, the saint holds a Bible or a pruning knife.
“There is a religious anchor in the profession,” explains Éloi Bertrand, winegrower in Trigny. “We wouldn’t imagine this celebration without mass.” We come there as a family. His wife Armelle explains: “Before, it was my husband who dressed up; now it’s our son Benoît. The grape picker’s pants are those of Eloi’s grandfather.”
In this region where vines provide income, children take over the farm more often than elsewhere. When this is not the case, they remain owners: “It’s family property,” comments Éloi. When the priest at mass raises the cup of wine saying that it is “the fruit of the vine and the work of men”, the expression here takes on an intimate meaning: the vine is the fruit of the work of generations of the family before us.
“The vine teaches us God in images”
Father Edmond Sagna noticed this as soon as he arrived, at harvest time. “I discovered vineyards before discovering churches,” he says, smiling.
During his homily, he comments: “The vine teaches us God in images. In the work of the vineyard, man joins God. Plowing, weeding, maintenance, fighting diseases: all this doesn’t leave much rest. This brings us back to God who never stops working for us to be branches that bear the good fruits of love, peace, joy, solidarity and sharing.”
In these territories, the Church cultivates the values of community, unity and solidarity. The dioceses of Reims and Châlons-en-Champagne are also leading a joint reflection on the pastoral care of the vine. The first challenge? Individualism and the idolatry of money which damage the links woven between people, between villages.
Champagne winegrowers are also concerned about global warming and the Mercosur agreements. In their midst and at their side, the Church wants to “speak a word of hope: they are not alone. The Church accompanies them in joy as well as in difficulties,” summarizes Father Bertand, assistant to Father Edmond.
Local religious traditions are like a vine: rooted in the human experience of a profession, of a land, they draw from it a spiritual sense of man’s rightful place in the world and with others. This vine nourishes the branches which irrigate social life.
