The Gypsies’ pilgrimage in Saintes Marie de la Mer
Each year the pilgrimage high in color in Marie de la Mer attracts many faithful, gypsies and guardians who participate in the ceremonies of the showing of the reliquaries, religious services, processions and blessings at the sea.
The Maries de la Mer in Camargue, important pilgrimage
Located in
the Camargue Natural Regional Park, the small coastal town of
Saintes Maries de la Mer is a location of high pilgrimage and a seaside resort well known in the South of France.
The city was built around its fortified church built between the 11th and the 12th century. This chapel, a true fortress surrounded by a sentry walk was destined to protect the relics of the Maries and the inhabitants of the city in case of an incursion by an enemy.
The commune has always been a location of high pilgrimage it welcomes three each year to honor the three saints on May 24 and 25 and the Sunday closest to October 22.
The pilgrimage of the gypsies in Saintes Maries de la Mer
It is on May 24 that Saint Sarah, the “black virgin”, Patron Saint of the Gypsies is carried to the sea. This ceremony is preceded by the bringing down of the relics with a winch inside the Church among the acclamations and the songs of the crowd. The statue representing Sarah is then carried by the Gypsies to the sea to symbolize the waiting and the welcome of the Maries Jacobé and Salomé.
This celebration is the most recent in Maries de la Mer. It was instituted in 1935 by the Marques of Baroncelli and a few guardians who wanted to give the Gypsies a place that they did not have until then, by organizing this walk to the sea in commemoration of the arrival of their Saint.
The May 24 pilgrimage is the most important for the traveling people community. Each year more than 10,000, from all over Europe, come to the Maries de la Mer to celebrate the “black virgin”, Sainte Sarah, patron Saint of the Gypsies. The pilgrimage is also the opportunity to have the children baptized in the city’s church.
The pilgrimage in saintes Maries de la Mer
The ritual for the celebrations of May 25 and October are older and go back to the Middle Ages. They have not changed, the Maries are celebrated today the way they were then, by singing, a candle in hand, with great popular fervor.
The pilgrimages take place after a solemn morning Mass, a procession take then to the sea the statues of the Maries Jacobé and Salomé in a boat accompanied by many pilgrims coming from all horizons: gypsies, guardians on horseback, Arlesiennes in costume or simply the curious.
All go to the sea to symbolize the arrival of the Maries and the faith in the city. The ceremony is followed by a blessing by the bishop on a traditional fisherman’s boat. In the afternoon the reliquaries are brought back to the High Chapel in the church. For several days, many ceremonies and vigils will take place in the Church.
