Our Lady Of The Forest
Year : 1419
In 1380 there lived, near Lesneven, a good old man named Salaun or Soloman. He had no one to care for him, lived alone, and did not associate with any person; he walked with his eyes on the ground, but his heart, in Heaven. Old and crippled as he was, he might be seen every evening hobbling toward the chapel of the Blessed Virgin where he spent most of the night in prayer, after the villagers had returned to their homes. He was of the woods, and here where the chapel was built, he slept under an oak near a fountain. He begged for bread, and was often laughed at, jeered at and mistreated by the small boys.
One day while the villagers were on their way to the chapel, they found the old man in the snow, dying of exposure. They tried to help him, but, with the words “Ave Maria” on his lips, he went to His Queen in Heaven. Legend further relates that he was buried in an out-of-the-way place, since he had no family to mourn him. When spring came, a snow-white lily rose from the outcast’s grave, and on the petals in letters of gold were the words, “Ave Maria!”
