Discover the Protestant temple of Saint-Pierre d'Oléron

Description

At the start of the Reformation, Protestant worship was held in barns belonging to the faithful. In the commune of St Pierre, worship took place successively in Bonnemie, la Grossetière, en Rullon and, finally, in St Pierre itself, in the Fresneau family home.



After the signing of the Edict of Nantes, a first temple was built in 1606 on the precinct of the Saint Gemme priory. This building was burnt down in 1626 for fear that it would be transformed into a church, as was the case with the Château building. From 1628, the public practice of the Reformed religion was forbidden on the island. The remains of the temple were demolished in 1683. Protestants then attended the Marennes temple.



With the reorganization of religious denominations in Year X (1802), a Reformed church was officially created in Saint-Pierre, comprising all 600 Protestants living on the island. Placed in the district of the Consistoire Général de La Rochelle, which had only two pastors for ten churches, it was initially served by the pastors of Marennes: G. Berneaud (1803) and J. D. Gonimi (1807). Four of the latter's suffragents successively took up residence in Saint-Pierre from 1830, when the presbyteral council was organized. The position was not titularized until 1841.



In Saint-Pierre, worship was first held in a house opposite the Chasseloup building, then in a room belonging to the Grenot family. On his mother's in extremis recommendation, Pierre Grenot, a contractor and former member of the Consistoire, later donated this apartment to the Protestant church and turned it into the present-day temple, with the help of a 3,000 F subsidy voted for the purpose by the town council. While the work was being carried out, a room in the Allard house was temporarily used as a temple.



The new building was inaugurated on May 12, 1833, with Pastor Cambon of Marennes presiding. According to the minutes of the dedication ceremony, the occasion was a resounding success, with numerous pastors, deacons and continental elders in attendance, as well as the civil authorities, court judges and employees of the various administrations, all dressed in their distinctive costumes.



In June 1923, Pastor Marc Boegner[1] presided over the state funeral of Pierre Loti, who had died on June 10, 1923 in Hendaye. In accordance with his last wishes, he was buried at Saint Pierre d'Oléron in the garden of "la maison des aïeules". Pierre Loti's body was first taken by rail to Rochefort, to be displayed in the renaissance room of his famous house. The coffin was then transported on an artillery extension to the Charente, where it was taken aboard the aviso Le Chamois. It was then escorted by four destroyers off Boyardville. Transferred to a rowboat that entered the La Perrotine canal, the coffin was then taken by motor van to St Pierre d'Oléron's Place de la Lanterne[2] and finally carried by hand to the temple, after the church service, to the "maison des aïeules". There, at the bottom of the garden, Pierre Loti is buried.