Vannes Cathedral (Tomb of St. Vincent Ferrer)
The burial place of St. Vincent Ferrer.
St. Vincent Ferrer → Plan a trip hereThe Story
St. Peter's Cathedral in Vannes, Brittany, is the resting place of St. Vincent Ferrer, the great Dominican preacher of the late Middle Ages, who died in the city on April 5, 1419. Born in Valencia, Spain, around 1350, Vincent Ferrer entered the Dominican Order and became one of the most celebrated preachers of his age, traveling on foot across much of Western Europe and calling vast crowds to conversion and penance. Tradition reports many healings and conversions accompanying his preaching. He also labored for the healing of the Great Western Schism, the crisis of rival claimants to the papacy that divided Christendom in his lifetime. His final months were spent preaching in Brittany, where he died at Vannes in 1419. He was buried in the cathedral, and devotion grew so quickly that he was canonized in 1455 by Pope Callixtus III. The stream of pilgrims and their offerings at his tomb helped finance the Gothic rebuilding of the cathedral itself in the decades that followed. His relics, including his skull, are venerated in the cathedral; kept from 1956 in the Renaissance rotunda chapel, they were returned to their historic place of honor during the 600th-anniversary commemorations of his death. Pilgrims still come to Vannes to pray at the shrine of the 'Angel of the Judgment,' as he was called for his stirring preaching on conversion. The cathedral, raised to the rank of minor basilica in 1870, remains the spiritual heart of the Diocese of Vannes and a witness to the enduring power of the preached Gospel.
Church Recognition
St. Vincent Ferrer was canonized by Pope Callixtus III in 1455, and his feast is kept on the General Roman Calendar on April 5; Vannes Cathedral, which guards his relics, was declared a minor basilica by Pope Pius IX in 1870.
Catholic Teaching
St. Vincent Ferrer's shrine speaks of the Church's mission to preach the Gospel and call all people to conversion, and of the communion of saints by which the faithful venerate the relics of those who now intercede for us (CCC 946–962, 1674).
Plan Your Visit
Practical
Additional Information
Pilgrims visit the chapel in the cathedral where St. Vincent Ferrer's relics have rested since 1956, along with his Gothic tomb monument and the cathedral treasury. Devotion is strongest around his feast on April 5, and the saint remains beloved in both Brittany and his native Valencia.
Go Deeper
See the cathedral's official website, cathedrale-vannes.fr, for the shrine of St. Vincent Ferrer; explore Dominican biographies of the saint, and Catechism of the Catholic Church 1674 on the veneration of relics.
Location
Visit the official website ↗ See it on the interactive map →Pilgrim Photos
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