The Islamic-Christian pilgrimage celebrates its 70th anniversary

It returns every year, the fourth weekend of July in the commune of Vieux-Marché (Côtes-d’Armor). The Breton pilgrimage of the Pardon of the Seven Sleepers celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2024. This anniversary will be marked by the presence of Cardinal Cristóbal López-Romero, Archbishop of Rabat, who will preside over the pardon, and Monsignor Denis Moutel, Bishop of Saint-Brieuc and Tréguier.

The pilgrimage begins on Friday evening, July 26, in Yaudet – a hamlet in the commune of Ploulec’h – before stopping in Lannion for the night. It can be joined on Saturday, from 9:30 am at the train station or for the picnic at 1 pm at the Château de Tonquedec before heading to the Seven Saints.

On the program, procession, songs and tantad (bonfire) in the pure tradition of Breton forgiveness will punctuate these three days of walking. A meeting on the theme “Louis Massignon and peace in justice – And today?” will also be organized on Saturday with, as guests, the anthropologist Manoël Pénicaud, the Catholic pastor in Morocco Mgr López-Romero, the trainer Hocine Sadouki and the founder of the NGO Relief and Reconciliation Friedrich Bokern.

A common history between Christianity and Islam

Launched in 1954 by the Islamologist Louis Massignon, the Pardon of the Seven Sleepers is based on a scene recounted in the Koran (sura 18 known as the surah of the People of the Cave) and concerning seven Christians who, having refused to renounce their religion, were walled up alive in a cave near the city of Ephesus by the Roman emperor Decius (3rd century AD) and woke up two hundred years later.

Dozens of sites linked to the cult of the Seven Sleepers in the Muslim and Christian worlds bear witness to the influence of this legend. And for 70 years, Christians and Muslims have come together to celebrate a common history. Louis Massignon considered, in fact, that the Seven Sleepers are “passers between Christianity and Islam”. For both, they remain the anticipated witnesses of the resurrection of the body.

To honor the figure of its creator, a “Pierre Massignon” bearing the reproduction of a bronze medal in his image will be inaugurated during the pilgrimage.