In the 16th century, the men in power wanted to control the movement of the people. This is how the regional or local pilgrimage appears, favoured by stories of miracles while the "long-distance pilgrimage" (long-distance) is running out of steam. Thus the Abbey of Saint-Gérard de Brogne enjoyed a great reputation in the 17th century for pilgrims, because of the prayers for which its patron saint interceded and its miraculous water.
Opposite the former monastery, St. Peter's Church perpetuates the cult of the saint, who was the first abbot.
This route is more fully described in a discovery brochure Detours and other pilgrimages in Namur (FR).
This tour can be combined with the The new Benedictine abbeys tour.
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Saint-Gérard is a village built around its former abbey. Secularized since the end of the Ancien Régime, it was amputated from its church and part of its cloister for the needs of a road, the one separating the abbey from the parish church (...)
In front of the parish church, a monument was erected in homage to Saint Gerard who did so much for the village of Brogne that it took its name from the 17th century, thus becoming "Saint-Gérard" (...)