An historical sketch of the forest chapel of Bermont

The chapel of Bermont is elevated, in picturesque solitude, upon a small plateau framed by forest, 2 km to the northwest of Greux.  At an altitude of 341 meters, it rises above (by 73 meters) the valley of the Meuse to the east and, to the south, a narrow and deep vale of forests where it empties into a small pond, the ``Saint-Thiebaut Fountain''.

Is the origin of the chapel owing to Saint-Thiebaut de Provins, 1017-1066?  Effecting a pilgrimage to Saint James de Compostelle, Thiebaut would have passed through Bermont, and would have left there such a remembrance of holiness, that the inhabitants of the vicinity afterwards dedicated to him the chapel which they raised there.  To be persuaded of this tradition, the chapel would have to date back to the end of the 11th century or to the beginning of the 12th.

The first authentic deed that one possesses concerning Bermont is of the 13th century: a charter dated the
"monday before the feast of Saint Andrew of the year 1263", preserved in the archives of Meurthe-et-Moselle; one reads there that the ``house'' of Bermont belonged, in this era, to the benedictine abbey of Bourgueil, in the diocese of Tours, which maintained a monk there.  It is ceded to sire Joffroi GRAVIER of Bourlemont and to his wife in order to unite it to the hospital of Gerbonvaux, recently founded by them, along with the premonstratensians, in the honor of Our Lady.  A brother of Gerbonvaux had to come there three times a week to celebrate the divine office within the chapel.  The brothers of Gerbonvaux would have been able to introduce the cult of N.D. to Bermont.

Near the end of the path to Bermont---where Jehanne may once have walked.  Photo Courtesy Roger Brisson.  Click on image for full-scale view.