Abstract EN:

This thesis examines the reality and the historical genesis of the picture created in the XIXth century of a brittany as " land of pardons " where pilgrimages presented totally specific characteristics. To this end, attention ws paid to the previous two centuries, studying the most varied documents (miracles, wills, chapel accounts, hospital records, monuments, oral tradition, local folklore). It shows that celtic culture undeniably stands out at the end of the middle ages to which the large number of chapels, holy springs, holy stones, the wide variety of the pigrim's rituals as well as a marginal situation compared with the usual routes of european pilgrimages (rome, st james of compostella) bear witness. But the counter-reformation, which made itself here from 1620 in the increasing number of spontaneous pilgrimages such as to Sainte-Anne d'Auray, also plays a decisive role in the birth of pardons as they appear in the XIXth century ; it renews their forms by briging in, through the use of indulgences, an extensive use of sacraments ; it further adds a spectacular festive element. This evolution, which is the opposite of that prevailing in the surrounding areas, lends more originality to the pardon at the the end of the xXVIIIth century and enables us to understand the forming of the stereotype which holds sway later.