Passionate volunteers at the bedside of the saint of Lunel

Daniel Thiery, Marie-Claude Mathan, Annie Moynier et Anne-Marie Lefebvre au cœur de la chapelle Saint-Gérard de l’église Notre-Dame-du-Lac. A. C.

Ils se démènent pour redonner ses lettres de noblesse à Gérard le Bienheureux.

Everyone has their role. Their place. At the bedside of this Saint-Gérard chapel and the “Blessed” who gave it his name.

Five volunteers who cherish the saint of Lunel whose painting usually appears in this alcove of the Notre-Dame-du-Lac church and which is currently undergoing a complete restoration.

Read also: In Anne Rigaud’s studio, the second life of the “Blessed Gérard of Lunel”

Five women and men who count neither their time nor their patience to retrace the journey of this young religious whose story few know. The legend, we would say. Daniel Thiery is the coordinator “passionate”, as he likes to define himself, of the band.

Alongside him, Annie Moynier and Marie-Claude Mathan are more specialized in the life of Saint Gérard. As for Anne-Marie Lefebvre, she acts as an intermediary between the volunteers and the municipality.
Finally, Dominique Bruckberger (absent on the day of the photo) is more specifically responsible for the archives of the old musical group of Lunel called “L’Harmonie Saint-Gérard”.

Sanctified in Rome in 1743

It is also through them that the proof arrives that Gérard the Blessed was indeed sanctified. “I joined this group in 2021 and following the death, in 2023, of Gérard Mathan, very involved in the life of Saint Gérard, I went to Rome on a pilgrimage, explains Daniel Thiery. Upstream, Annie Moynier had reactivated the file to prove the sainthood of Gérard de Lunel. At the Holy See, I met one of the archivists who provided me, three weeks later, with the text formalizing his canonization.”

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It was in 1743. It is specified in the writings that the city of Monte Santo (today Potenza Picena in Italy), where Gérard the Blessed died, celebrates him every May 25.
“He is the patron saint of Monte Santo. Here, particularly through Gérard Mathan, we wanted to restore Saint Gérard's nobility and rehabilitate him in his birthplace”, explains Daniel Thiery.

Towards a twinning with Potenza Picena

For this reason, the five volunteers are more than delighted with the restoration of the painting of the Blessed of Lunel, which is set to return to its chapel during the month of April.
A chapel that the municipality has promised to restore in order to properly accommodate the work before the inauguration of the whole on June 1, 2025.

As for the year 2026, it could be the year of the creation of a twinning with the town of Potenza Picena around Gérard. The five volunteers are thinking about it ardently. Passionately.

Saved by a snake

Gérard de Lunel was born around 1270 in the eponymous barony. He is the son of Giraud Amic IV de Sabranthor and Thérèse Gauceline de Sabran d'Uzès.

He is thus co-heir of the barony of Lunel with his cousin Raymond de Gaucelm II de Sabran d'Uzès and is the grandson of Raymond Gaucelm III.

It is 1295, during the reign of Philip the Fair. Gérard is 6 years old and is affiliated, with his brother, Effrenaud, to the brotherhood of the Friars Minor founded in 1214 by Saint Francis of Assisi. A community of prayer, fraternity, humanity and poverty.

While Philip the Fair takes possession of the barony of Lunel, that of Rochefort returns to Gérard and his brother. On these lands is a sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The brothers apply the rules of Saint Francis of Assisi.

By mutual agreement, they decide to abandon the comfort of the lordship to go and live in one of the caves near the Pont du Gard.

During a rise in the Gardon, legend has it that the two hermits were saved from the rising waters and hunger by a snake bringing them something to survive. A miracle that will launch Gérard and Effrenaud on the steps of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

By the Roman roads, they would have embarked à Aigues-Mortes to reach Tuscany and its Italy, where the plague is raging. The two brothers treat the sick afflicted by this contagious disease.

On the road of their journey, before he can reach Ancona to reach the Holy Land, Gérard falls ill but refuses to stop. The disease catches up with him, however, while he is in the hamlet of Colombaro, very close to Monte Santo, the town in which he dies and where he is buried.

The inhabitants fight over the remains of the pilgrim, driven by the desire to possess his relics. Among these, a bone fragment that is today at the foot of his statue located in the chapel in his name in the Notre-Dame-du-Lac church. In Lunel. A “return” to his hometown.