The chapels are called Notre Dame de la Paix (Our Lady of Peace) and the Chambre de l'Ermite (Hermit's Room). On August 15 of each year it is still a site of pilgrimage for local Christians. However, the tree had at least one moment of peril after the original lightning strike. The need to survive sometimes precipitates change. During the Revolution the tree became an emblem of the old system of governance and tyranny as well as the church that aided and abetted it. Le Chêne chapelle was to experience its own terror. A crowd descended upon the village, intent on burning the tree to the ground.
However, a local whose name is lost to history had an inspired thought – as sometimes people do when they have to think at a speed approaching light. He renamed the oak the temple of reason and as such it became a symbol of the new ways of thinking. It was thus spared the lightning strike of political revolution.
Of course, a tree this old cannot go on forever and Chêne chapelle is showing its age. Poles must shore up its weight where it once it bore its own, like a giant stretching. Wooden shingles have been used to cover areas of the tree which have lost their bark. Yet as much care and diligence is given to the tree as can be, to ensure that it lives on as long as possible even though part of its trunk is already dead. Yet twice a year its loyal congregation gathers and mass is celebrated within the confines of this remarkable chapel of oak.
The oak is the site of a pilgrimage on August 15 (Assumption of Mary).
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