A few steps from the Gourbe, which meanders quietly through the Andaine forest, hides a chapel dedicated to Saint Anthony the Great. If the oldest trace of the building dates back to 1232, its foundation is estimated in the 6th century.
Property of the Abbey of Saint-Martin-de-Troarn, the chapel was destroyed during the Revolution, but the statue of the saint was spared. Definitively attached to Magny-le-Désert, the old oratory was rebuilt in 1875. But why this loyalty to Saint Antoine?
The devotion follows the acquisition of a fragment of the bones of the saint obtained by the parish priest of Almenêches from the bishopric of Grenoble. A relic offered to the parish of Magny was placed in the chapel during a procession, organized on June 2, 1879, in the presence of several thousand faithful.
For more than a century, the chapel became the object of popular veneration, and masses were celebrated there on January 17, the date of the death of Saint Anthony, in Thebaid, in ancient Egypt, and on Pentecost Monday.
Near the small monument, a well is revealed where crosses of hazel wood made on site are accumulated. Placed in this fountain, these crosses grant wishes and ensure healing. Custom or legend, not a word, it's a secret...
It is also said that mysterious beings haunt the place. Fairy of the Heathers of Andaine, Gisèle Normande and Mélusine du Poitou protect travelers on full moon evenings. But after midnight, the werewolf Guierou and his friend La Grande Bique would intimidate walkers into falling from the rocks of the Villiers Gorge.
Source: ouest-france.fr/pays-de-la-loire/sarthe/andaine-les-secrets-de-la-chapelle-saint-antoine-6129984