In keeping with the traditions that led to the construction of several Alpine sanctuaries, a legend is attached to this place of pilgrimage. Its foundation is said to have resulted from the discovery of a statue by a shepherd.
Description
This, wherever the shepherd carried it, miraculously returned to its original site. This is where this chapel dedicated to Saint Amand was built.
Current historical knowledge does not allow us to specify which Amand this place evokes: Amans of Rodez from the 5th century, Amand of Maastricht or Amand of Cérins from the 7th century. The patronage of the saints of the first millennium, Amand and Martin, in Clamensane implicitly indicates an ancient settlement site.
The pilgrimage to the site of the current chapel is very old and has been documented since 1600.
The place names of the region, the district of the cross, the chapel, and the clot of Loumeyraye, recall its importance. The term Loumeyraye, a local variant of roumeyrage, restores the etymology of voyage to Rome (roumieu, pilgrim going to Rome; viage, journey). It demonstrates the importance of this ancient religious event, which took place the day after Pentecost. Pilgrims came from all the villages along the Sasse, from Bayons to Châteaufort.
On the access road, in 1764, Consul Jean Burle placed a cross at the pass of the same name where an oratory is said to have existed.
A nearby hermitage was still inhabited in 1837. The chapel was still in good condition in 1861 and the many ex-votos, now lost, testified to the popular fervor. The pilgrimage exists
until around 1920.
The building then deteriorated and ended up as ruins overgrown with vegetation.
In July 1999, at the initiative of the Commune of Clamensane, the restoration and removal of the site from danger began.
In October 2000, the jubilee year, the restored Saint-Amand chapel was blessed by the Brothers of Saint-Jean, of Châteaufort. Creation and printing: Hautes Terres de provence® - 2018
Saint Amand
Several saints named Amand existed, but the breviaries of the bishopric of Gap only celebrate Saint Amand of Maastricht (c. 584-c. 679), whose feast day is February 6. Born near Nantes and consecrated bishop in 628, Saint Amand evangelized in Flanders—where he founded two monasteries in Ghent and another in Hainaut, near Tournai—in Carinthia, Austria, and the Danube regions, then in the Basque country. Elected bishop of Maastricht in 649, he renounced this priesthood three years later and retired to the abbey of Elnone, in Saint-Amand-Les-Eaux, where he became abbot. He is often identified in statuary by a mitre placed at his feet, a symbol of his renunciation of the episcopate.