La chapelle de Saint Guirec, Ploumanac’h
Ploumanac’h – remembering Kirig/Guirec
When the Welsh Saint Tugdal, one of the seven founding fathers of Brittany, built his monastery at Tréguier, he staffed it with compatriots, chief of whom was Kirig (or Guirec in French spelling). Around 530 AD Tugdal suggested that Kirig found a monastery of his own, and being by nature a hermit, he chose an isolated area far from habitation to do this.
The monastery housed local converts to the Christian faith, who were sent out to preach the gospel in neighbouring villages, but Kirig never ceased his long and lonely devotions. He prayed for hours in the open air, alone under heaven, solely in the company of God.
The site of his devotions is now called Ploumanac’h. Many Breton village names begin “plou” since this word means “parish”, but here the official recorders made a mistake. The correct name is Pouill Manac’h, “pool of the monk”. On a rock which is surrounded by water at high tide is a very ancient shrine known as the oratory of Saint Guirec, which faces out to sea, so that many present-day beachgoers only see the back of it. Overlooking it, just above the beach, is a tiny late-medieval chapel dedicated to Saint Guirec.
L'oratoire de Saint-Guirec at low tide
lL'oratoire de Saint-Guirec at low tide
There is no proof, but it’s difficult to resist the idea that the monk for whom Pouill Manac’h was named was Kirig himself, and that the rock on which his oratory was built was a rock on which he stood, spending every day in prayer, his monk’s habit kilted up to his knees to allow him to wade to and from it, his gaze firmly turned away from the land towards the ever-changing sea, the rising and falling tides being the visible embodiment of God’s constant intervention in life on earth. Winter and summer, rain or shine, people who saw him praying for long hours would have had no doubt of his holiness.
The little shrine has been repaired repeatedly throughout the ages, and the region has just completed the latest refurbishment, keeping alive for another generation the memory of Kirig, standing forever on his rock, watching the never-ending movement of the sea.
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