The Valley of the Saints: The hundredth statue sets sail to Carnoët, Brittany

News From Kernow Matters To Us:

We are grateful to our Breton brothers and sisters for drawing this news to our attention:

The Valley of the Saints: The hundredth statue sets sail to Carnoët, Brittany.

The statue will represent Saint Piran - Cornish Abbot and Saint, will be sculpted at Mabe, near Falmouth and will sail in May 2018.

Saint Piran will be represented with a millstone wheel around his neck. The Cornish legend tells how, Piran, already aged, was captured by the local pagan Irish.

Jealous of his miraculous powers of healing, they tied a millstone around his neck and threw him from a cliff into a raging sea. When Piran hit the water, the storm calmed down and the millstone jumped to the surface as if it were made of cork! 

On this wheel will be engraved in Cornish language a proverb of Breton sailor: 'Oh God, my boat is so small and the ocean so big !'

The two sculptors selected, Cornish man David Paton and Breton Stéphane Rouget will work a block of granite of 3.20 m extracted from the Carnsew quarry which produces a beautiful stone with gray silver gray veined with brown.

At the end of May 2018, the five-ton statue will leave the workshop of Mabe, a town of 2,000 inhabitants, to Falmouth, where it will be placed aboard 'The Nebula' , a former tuna boat converted into a cruising sailboat and transport.

From July 26 to July 29, 2018, the Valley of the Saints will celebrate its tenth anniversary. Three days of celebration in which Saint Piran, the hundredth statue of the site, will be solemnly installed on its base, originating from a Breton quarry and carved on the spot. 

Another symbol, marking "the union of two countries, Cornwall and Brittany, and their common history in the exploitation of granite. "

Between the 4th and 9th  century, thousands of migrants left their Celtic lands of Wales, Ireland, Cornwall or Scotland to move to Brittany,

Cornwall and Cornish people celebrate Piran, its National Saint of peace and his unsullied flag of a pure white cross on a black background before on and after 5th March annually with just some events listed here: 

http://www.visitredruth.co.uk/World-Heritage-Tourist-Information/St_Pirans_Festival_1664.aspx

https://www.visitcornwall.com/whats-on/traditional-cultural/north-coast/perranporth/st-pirans-day-celebrations-cornwall

http://www.londoncornish.co.uk/event/st-pirans-day-celebration-to-be-held-on-saturday-4th-march-2017/

https://www.richmix.org.uk/events/music/kernow-city-2017

Original news report from 'Ouest France' here: http://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/vallee-des-saints-la-centieme-statue-prendra-la-mer-4801246/

Attached photograph: Redruth Piran Fest