For the past 40 years, these Days in September have provided an opportunity to discover small and large monuments… to be passed on to future generations and which must therefore be protected and safeguarded.
To continue an initiative that began before the Covid years, we too, the Sisters of Charity, wanted to offer a visit to our house, or rather our houses, located in Besançon between the Rue des Martelots and the Grande Rue…
So, an open house:
- to visit the inner courtyards, which everyone is always amazed to discover
- to visit our chapel, consecrated in 1847 by Cardinal Mathieu to the Immaculate Virgin and Saint Vincent de Paul
- to revisit the history of our successive buildings, acquired since 1812 to house the ever-growing number of sisters, but also to provide work that continues to this day in other parts of the city: schools, clinics, youth centres, etc.
Open doors:
- An invitation to rediscover the life of Saint Jeanne-Antide through a short film produced by a sister from Vietnam in collaboration with older sisters,
- to visit the exhibition dedicated to her and finally… to go out to No 131 Grande Rue and admire the elegant façade and the door that inspired a whole tradition in our history.
Even if the number of people who came to join us was limited compared with the number of people who had visited the new Museum of the Resistance at the Vauban citadel or other places rich in history which are not lacking in the city, we were delighted to welcome neighbouring families who did not know us, people who had links with the Congregation through members of their families, friends of the sisters… young people who tasted the peace of this place which was unknown to them.
A TV presenter insisted that the stones speak to us of human adventures that must be safeguarded and passed on, because we are all collectively responsible for them. For next year, we’ll be looking at ways of giving a little more publicity to our invitation and adding other facets of our history for a wider audience to discover.
