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Frank Baudouin
Published on
Dec 4 2024 at 5:13 p.m.
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It is a story whose memory remains engraved on the facade of theSaint-Joseph-Le Château schoolfrom Pontivy (Morbihan).
On the kindergarten students' courtyard side, under the statue of Saint Joseph, a War Cross, sculpted in granite, recalls the heroic act of two nuns, who, on August 3, 1944, sabotaged the incendiary device of the German occupier , thus saving part of the Castle school from destruction…
“They showed exceptional courage”
Thursday December 12, 2024, the private school on avenue Napoléon-Iis will pay tribute to these two nuns “who, at the risk of their lives, demonstrated exceptional courage”, recalls Marc Lamouric, director of the Saint-Joseph-Le Château school.
That day, from 10:45 a.m., in the school's main courtyard, a military ceremony in the presence of veterans will be organized.
Students will read the testimonies of the nuns and firefighters who recount this famous day of August 3, 1944. After the Marseillaise sung by the schoolchildren, a marble plaque recalling this act of bravery will be unveiled, followed by a religious tribute.
At the same time, in Plumelin (Morbihan), at the congregation of the Daughters of Jesus of Kermaria, flowers will be placed on the graves of the two nuns.
This ceremony is part of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Pontivy. This is why we wanted to associate the City of Pontivy with this military tribute. Families, former students and colleagues are warmly invited to participate.
School requisitioned
In January 1943, 16 rooms of the Château school were requisitioned by the Germans.
The rooms on the ground floor essentially serve as a supply store for the occupant.
Before the war, 26 nuns from the congregation of the Daughters of Jesus of Kermaria taught classes there…
In August 1944, Allied troops advanced towards Pontivy. The Germans decide to leave the city, to fall back on Lorient. But before leaving, they decide to blow up all their deposits.
Wire and dynamite
“For three or four months, the teachers had noticed the unusual presence of a fairly thick metal wire running around the room following the line of the ceiling. “Your house is mined and destined to be blown up if you leave,” the French workers communicated to us,” recounted one of the nuns who had described the situation, hour by hour.
On the morning of August 3, the Germans were leaving.
Around 11:30 a.m., the mother superior asked a nun to go see what happened to the metal wires in the class. Horror: the cords, unrolled, end up in the center of two wooden boxes. These are crates of dynamite!
A grenade and it's fire
Two nuns, Marie-Louise Berthélémé, known as Sister Marie Ursule of Jesus, and Marie-Josèphe Christin, known as Sister Eusébie, decide to take action despite the presence of German sentries.
They cut the wires and moved, as discreetly as possible, 28 boxes of dynamite into the greenhouse at the bottom of the garden.
The nuns think their school has been saved. But, around 8:30 in the evening, a German soldier threw a grenade into the part of the building occupied by the classes and there was a fire. A veritable blaze from hell, which the firefighters managed to bring under control.
Only this part of the school is completely destroyed. The Castle building, where the nuns live, and the chapel were saved.
The girls' school, today the Charles-Langlais college, will not be so lucky. It will be completely destroyed.
In July 1945, the nuns of the Château school received a Citation in the order of the division, with the award of the Croix de Guerre with silver star.
The school and boarding school will be rebuilt and inaugurated on October 17, 1948.
In 1952, the Château building was raised by one floor.
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