Our Lady of the Zarzal

Marian vocation of Josselin (Britain)

The tradition of Our Lady of the Zarzal in Josselin places the origin of the image in the siglo IX: a representation of the Virgin in a General ("roncier" in French), from which the name of Notre-Dame du Roncier. This is the basis of local devotion and the title with which the shrine of Josselin is known.

Main data

Origin and history

The tradition of Our Lady of the Zarzal in Josselin places the origin of the image in the siglo IX: a representation of the Virgin in a General ("roncier" in French), from which the name of Notre-Dame du Roncier. This is the basis of local devotion and the title with which the shrine of Josselin is known.

La documented history of the cult is much safer from the Middle Ages and from the stable organization of the school sanctuary of Josselin. The town conserves an intense tradition of Marian pilgrimage around this advocation, associated with the great pardons Bretons, that is, pilgrimages and popular religious parties of Britain.

The image and the sanctuary

The venerated image is a imagen mariana antigua linked to the tradition of finding in a bush; in the sources consulted there is no safety, for this sheet, a sufficiently precise technical description of the material, size or detailed iconography, so such data should be given as no consta.

Se venera en la collegiate de Saint-Martin de Josselin, which works as a local sanctuary of Notre-Dame du Roncier in Josselin, Department of Morbihan, in Britain, France. The sources provided do not contain an elevation to minor basilica ni a Nacional or diocesan sanctuary with that specific name; by editorial prudence, it should be stated as sanctuary colegial de Josselin.

Sponsorship and coronation

The sources consulted do not contain a canonically formulated patronage of a diocese or nation; it does, however, contain its strong connection with the town of Josselin and with Breton regional devotion.

The image was coronada en 1858; the pontiff or the specific coronation delegate does not have sufficient safety in the sources consulted; therefore, for a rigorous sheet it should be indicated simply: canonical coronation documented in 1858.

Party and devotion

La main party consta el September 8, date that matches the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and that fits the traditional Marian calendar of numerous vocations.

The devotion is marked by the pardons of Britain, with processions, popular participation and a penitential and festive character at the same time. The reputation of the Josselin shrine is maintained by its roots in local and regional piety, especially around the great Breton Marian pilgrimages.

Link to the Rosary

There is no specific and exclusive historical relationship of this advocation with the Rosary in the sources consulted.

But like all Marian advocation, Our Lady of the Zarzal is naturally inserted into the spirituality of the Rosary: the contemplative prayer of the mysteries of Christ with Mary accompanies the veneration to a concrete image of the Virgin and helps to read her sanctuary as a place of memory, intercession and Marian pilgrimage.