Yesterday I arrived at the Charleroi station in Belgium where my friends Michele and Alain picked me up to take me to their home, about 20 minutes away in a village called Biesme. After a short rest, we went into the village to take part in a yearly festival of the patron saint of the town, St. Eustache. This year’s festival celebrated it’s 40th year, but the history of the festival is connected to a different saint and goes back many centuries.
In the 8th Century, the King of Gaul had a daughter whose name was Rolende. In 774, she was betrothed to marry the son of the King of Scotland. She decided, instead, to escape from the palace and dedicate her life to God. She wandered endlessly before finding shelter at the Villers-Poterie Castle (a nearby village to Biesme) where she died, exhausted. Her mortal remains were brought back to the church in Gerpinnes. In the 12th Century (after several miracles occurred that were attributed to her), she was made a saint. Since then pilgrims have been asking her for protection with a procession around the parish. Thousands, dressed in Napoleonic-inspired outfits as a symbolic means of protection for the saint, whose relics are brought out from the church and part of the procession, join the event with drums and fifes. This procession goes through all the villages that depended upon the parish.
These processions evolved throughout the 20th Century with each village having their own festival in honor of Rolende and their patron saint. Here are some pictures from the festival I got an opportunity to attend which also includes pictures of the church and the castle. Today the castle is privately own, but the grounds are open on the festival day.
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