The Maintenance of the brotherhoods of penitents of France and Monaco, scheduled for Limoges this year, is postponed to 2027
The Limougeauds, who will be delighted to welcome the Maintenance of the brotherhoods of penitents of France and Monaco, will have to show themselves to the patients. This unprecedented ceremony, postponed to 2021 because of the health crisis is finally postponed to 2027. “I did not want it to be close to the ostensions of 2023. And as the different brotherhoods have events to celebrate, I finally opted for 2027. And again we have taken the place of the city of Nice ”, explains Pierre Lamige, first trustee of the brotherhood of Saint-Aurélien.
On May 18, 2019, he was given the labarum in Avignon, in other words the official standard of Maintenance which, like the Olympic flame, is transmitted to the city in charge of the organization. Stayed several months in the Saint-Aurélien chapel, the labarum is to the chagrin of the colleagues, it has left for Montpellier where the next meeting will take place.
Deception
Maintenance, which means “Let’s maintain what is”, aims to establish links of cooperation and mutual aid between the various brotherhoods of penitents in France and the Principality of Monaco. From the end of the 19th century, under the aegis of Cardinal de Cabrières and Frédéric Mistral, the brotherhoods of penitents came together. This project was fully realized in 1926. Since 1962, under the impetus of the Grand Master the Count Josserand of Saint-Priest-d’Urgel, a meeting of all the brotherhoods of penitents has been held. To join Maintenance, you must be Occitan and have a brotherhood of Penitents.
The porcelain city ticks all the boxes. It is, however, the northernmost maintenance town. There were many brotherhoods of Penitents in Limoges and in the region. And it was Bernard Bardon de Brun who in the 16th century imported into Limousin this very popular spiritual phenomenon in the south of France and in particular between Provence and the Principality of Monaco.
Premiere in Limoges
This event was to be a first for the city of Saint Martial, which was to receive 400 confreres from the whole of the Pays d’Oc and Monaco. Maintenance has not forgotten its commitments. Limoges is on the agenda. But we will have to wait. Ostensions should make those who are attached to these traditions patient.
Presentation of the labarum (standard) for the feast of the Penitents in May 2020 by Pierre Lamige, 1st trustee of the Saint Aurélien brotherhood
Jean-Francois Julien