The project of the Path of the Wise was born during a session of the Council of Elders, made up of 9 women and 9 men aged 60 and over, chosen for their wise experience by the Municipal Councillors. On that day, the subject of reflection was the question of how to bring our republican motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” to life?
The birth of the Path of the Sages
The idea germinated that sprinkle the city with sentences emanating from famous women and men, globally recognized for their wisdom and their humanism, could challenge the awareness of passers-by Borméens as tourists. In order to justify this bold and innovative project in the eyes of the Mayor and his Municipal Council, the decision is taken to combine this route with historical plaques which were to be installed on the city's emblematic monuments. The members of the Council of Elders then determined the route of this path within the medieval village and worked on the support, texts, images and symbols of these plates.
Le butterfly symbol is chosen because it represents joy, beauty, grace and lightness of being. It refers to the power of personal transformation by its strong power of rebirth. Indeed, before being a butterfly, this insect is first an egg, then it becomes a caterpillar before being a chrysalis and finally a butterfly. Each new step symbolizes a change in life, the let go on what you were to appreciate what you have become. As a symbol of wisdom, This animal is a source of inspiration in life. Under his fragile appearances,
The butterfly has a great strength. Indeed, his life is fleeting (life span of a few days to a few weeks) and yet, it spreads joy and good humor by the grace and beauty of its flight, enjoying every moment that nature offers it. So why not do like the butterfly, to approach with confidence everything that life offers us, good or bad experience, because after all it only lasts a moment. These experiences are not the past the better preparation for the future allowing us to move forward more serenely on the paths of life?
The biography of Abbé Pierre
A life serving the most deprived: “Brother of the poor, provocateur of Peace”.
Marie Joseph Henri Grouès, born August 5, 1912 in Lyon, studies at the Jesuits then engages in the scouting in 1925 which would mark his entire life. On returning from a school trip to Rome in 1927, he discovered during the stopover in Assisi, the life of Saint Francis which directs its religious vocation. But the one the scouts had nicknamed “meditative beaver” still hesitates between reflection and action : to go “to the desert to think only of Jesus” or to fight “on enemy territory, to battle by campaigning with great force”.
Henri Grouès returns home Capuchin monks at 19, the most austere branch of the Franciscans and took his vows on January 3, 1937 then is ordained priest in August 1938. Discovering the horrors of the persecution of Jews and patriots, he joins the Resistance in July 1942 and takes several clandestine identitiess including that of“Abbé Pierre”, in order not to be spotted by the Gestapo and the police of the Vichy regime. He sets up passage channels in the Alps and creates at his home a ID card manufacturing laboratory. In February 1943, a law established the Compulsory work service (STO) in Germany; Abbé Pierre created maquis for young people who refused to join the STO and, in April 1943, a newsletter for them, for which he needed a secretary.
He then meets Lucie Coutaz, originally a social worker, she became her loyal collaborator for 39 years, will accompany him in all his battles and will be co-founder of Emmaüs. In May 1944, his superiors ordered him to cross the Pyrenees clandestinely to join de Gaulle in Algiers. After the war, Abbé Pierre was asked to enter policy and is elected as MP from 1945 to 1951. En 1947, he rents a large dilapidated house in Neuilly-Plaisance and founded Emmaus. True to his ideal, he opened a international youth hostel, to welcome girls and boys “whose fathers had killed each other a short time before and who discovered, when peace returned, of what abomination Man had been capable”.
In 1949, Abbé Pierre met Georges Legay, who became the first companion of Emmaus. The first community is created in Neuilly-Plaisance. To finance its activities, he participated in the game in 1952 “Double or nothing” on Radio Luxembourg, and won 256 francs which allow you to acquire a truck and new land. Through the patrols he carries out, Abbé Pierre realizes the urgency of the situation for the poorly housed. Revolted and affected by the situation, he send a call February 1, 1954. This leads to a great surge of popular solidarity, and the long-awaited political response to housing construction.
During his trips, shares the Emmaüs experience and inspires the creation of Emmaüs groups in many countries in Europe, South America and Asia. In 1963, having survived a shipwreck, he understood the urgency and the necessity of creating a structure to unite all these groups. “Brother of the poor, provocateur of Peace” : this expression, placed by Abbé Pierre at the head of his 1967 curriculum vitae, is a real common thread: it gives us the ultimate goal of his multiple fights on a global scale throughout his life, many of which have earned him international fame. In addition to the MUCM which has become Universal Movement for a World Federation (MUFM), Abbé Pierre was the founder, leader or simple member of many federalist, global or European organizations. On January 22, 2007, he died at the Val-de-Grace hospital in Paris.
The Chapel of Saint Sebastian
La Saint Sebastian Chapel is in the Donkey Plain Street. Its year of foundation remains unknown, but we know that originally it was built outside the ramparts of the village, far below the protective walls. Its proximity to one of the main accesses to the village, the Roman road, is significant. In Provence, A chapel dedicated to Saint Sebastian is often placed at the entrance to a village and its emplacement is not trivial. It represents the last place where one would stop a visitor potentially carrying diseases or disorders. In those distant times, Saint Sebastian, Saint Roch or Saint Pons were regularly invoked during epidemics such as the plague or cholera.
The chapel is located at the crossroads of the paths, in the immediate vicinity from the path leading to the main entrance gate of the village, Lou Portaou (today Rompi Cuou Street). Like many chapels and tombs from the 5th century onwards, it is oriented. Its apse, the rounded part containing the choir, is facing east, thus following the path of the sun symbolizing divine light. The chapel is dedicated to the cult of Saint Sebastian. The population attributed to his protected the favor of being preserved of plagues such as the Black Death. Around the middle of the 14th century, several villages in the surroundings of Montpellier believed that they owed their salvation to the protection of Saint-Sébastien against epidemics. It was probably at this time that the little Bormes chapel was built.
In 1575, a Brotherhood of White Penitents settled there and made it its main headquarters. However, on April 20, 1653, a deliberation of the council authorized the transfer of the main headquarters of the Order to the Saint Francis Chapel of Paule, located at the top of the village, larger and offering better living conditions and religious practice to the many brothers of the Borméan brotherhood. The Saint-Sébastien chapel continues to fulfill its function at the bottom of the village, but it is gradually abandoned and deteriorates. During the great plague epidemic of 1720, coming from the port of Marseille, guard men are posted behind a wooden barricade, leaning against the south wall of the chapel, to prevent entry of anyone without a health certificate. In 1722, a few masses were still celebrated there. Over time, the chapel is deteriorating, and in 1732, its tiles were used to repair the roofs of the church and the presbytery. In 1789, the chapel was sold to a private individual and changed its purpose, becoming private property. Today, the Saint-Sébastien chapel is a private dwelling house, and only the rounded part of the apse is still visible.
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