traduction: Richard Longridge

Since the invention of the photograph, the old church in Henvic has inspired many artists, who have published numerous post cards. We do not know much about its construction or, alas, its history.
In 1913, Louis le Guennec described the old church of Henvic thus, in "The Finistère Monumental" (Volume 1, p 383 and 384), concerning Morlaix and its region:
" Of the former church, nearly entirely of the XVIIth Century, with some earlier parts, only the bell-tower and the adjacent part of the building were preserved which, populated with old statues of saints, acts currently as chapel of catechism. This old bell-tower, with its tastefully picturesque aspect, has been a joy to many artists. Its conservation is owed in part to what it acts as seamark for the ships entering the bay of St. Pol of Léon.

" The parish of Henvic honours in its special way, and since time immemorial, its patrons St. Maudez and Ste Juvelte. These two children of the king of Erelé Hybernie, and Gentuse his wife, lived at the sixth century. The statues of St. Maudez, as the abbot, and Ste Juvelte, as a nun, which were found in the former church, have been resited in the new church, as well as the curious sculpted panels that represented the main scenes of the life of these holy characters with curious explanatory legends. " This altar has been restored skiltul!y in 1923, by Surel, a painter-decorator from Morlaix. Ste Juvelte is invoked by people with the tumours on the knee.
" Near the old bell-tower, a kind of small altar, erected in the open air, is decorated with a Gothic bas-relief in Kersanton granit stone, somewhat delapidated, depicting 'The Entombment ". This altar is of funerary stone in black ardoisine slate, carved with an armorial shield bearing the coat of arms of the Lords of Quistillic, whose name was Crémeur. Several statuettes in stone, among others a holy John the Baptist in tuffeau stone, are lying here, in a dilapidated condition, between the tombs.
We can complete this description of the building by one other witness of the period when its roof was still standing. Abbot Pierre Nicolas brings us the following description in his writings about our old church, inspired by the Canons Peyron and Abgrall.

" When the new church was built, the old one was inadequate and largely ruined, but the most interesting portion, the lower part of the nave, the bell-tower and the western porch leaning against it were preserved.

" The porch with its 9 arcades, and surmounted by an archive room belongs to the last period of High Gothic, as well as the bell-tower with its staircase in the turret. " But the projecting balustrade and the beltry, crowned by a minuscule spire, gives the feeling of the full Henri IV or Louis XIII architectural style. This assemblage is far from lacking in character, and like the old bell-tower of Taulé, (damaged in part by lightning), its nearest neighbour, also preserved, offers an inspiration to artists and painters who have a fondness for the picturesque

" The old church possessed a certain number of movable objects not lacking in value. In a side chapel, a funeral recess sheltered a tomb with black marble tiles, with the weapons of the Crémeurs, Lords of Quistillic. In 1904, this flagstone, now broken in two, lay in the cemetery. On the main altar are to be found the statues of the Patron Saints of Henvic, St. Maudez, and his sister Ste Juvelte. (These statues are today in the new church).

" Under the statue of St. Maudez, in the form of a Gothic diptych, six bas-reliefs retrace different acts of his life, with these tableaux:
St. Maudez heals the sick
Receives his father's blessing
Heal the blind
Delivers the possessed
Blesses his disciples
Death of St. Maudez.
Beneath the statue of Ste Juvelte, there are also four more tableaux:
Ste Juvelte brings back to life a young nobleman
She delivers the possessed, the insane, and the mad
She gives back sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and the speech to the mute.
Ste Juvelte forbids the birds and beasts from damaging the crops of the poor people in the village.

"At the north altar, is a picture 1,20 metres high, and 2 metres wide, given by the government and placed in this church on Trinity Sunday, 1844, during the time of the then rector, M. Le Bris. In the middle is an Immaculate Virgin, and on two sides, angels hold a Latin legend, which one can decipher ": a principli dilexit enim "

" A statue of the Virgin Mother stands, 1,30m high, and also a statue of Ste Margeurite 1,30m high, with XVIIe century style drapery, accompanying a primitive Christ on the cross, O,80 metres high.

Other pictures existed in the old church, of which the magnificent painting of Christ on the Cross supposedly the work of Yan Dargent. Over of the Cross, one can read this inscription, " My only love put me on the Cross, the way that you see me now, Mortal, if you want myself of love to pay, the price to pay for love is love "

" In honour of the Dead of the 14-18 war, a picture of Julian, professor of drawing in Lesneven, has been offered to Henvic. This picture represents a tomb at the cemetery in Henvic, with a view on the porch of the former church. One sees two women there in the black mantle of mourning, following the former costume, and the other in the Breton headdress .
'' Among the religious buildings of the area of Morlaix, of which a recent decision by the commission of the Historic Monuments was recognised, was notably the old belltower in Henvic, of a style so admirably rustic and low Breton, with the triple ogive arcade with its porch outstanding. The turret encloses a spiral staircase, inaccessible to people whose size is too large, its gallery with mouldings crumbled by the centuries, its Louis XIII beltry with its warped lantermeau, all set about with marine growth. And as such we see it again, just as it was more than a century ago, when it had the honour, on April 20th, 1792 to be designated as the object for an old war expedition. It was indeed that day that the soldiers from Morlaix came to sequestrate the church bells, but were prevented by the peasants coming in numbers to defend their church...

" From the top of the galleries, a marvellous panorama is open to view.

" To the North, the blue mantle of the English Channel with its coastline of rocks where the waves surge; the Ile de Callot with its old chapel surmounted by a spire recalling the similar one in Henvic. The town of Carantec situated admirably on promontory between the two rivers Penzé and Dourdu (the Morlaix river), to the mouth of which is sited the bay of the Frout, previously protected by the old ' Chateau du Taureau' - Bull Castle.

" To the west, the city of St. Pol delightfully situated very close to the beaches of Pempoul, and dominated by the twin spires of St. Pol cathedral, and especially by the ornate bell-tower of the Kreisker (Centre-Ville). To the South, the new bridge called the Pont de la Corde and the rail viaduct and to the top, the beautiful church and the bell-tower of Plouénan. Farther, on the horizon, to the left, in a sky generally blurred by mist, the two spires of Plouvorn and Lambader stand out. To the South the final buttresses of the Monts d'Arrée stand forth with the marvellous site of la Roche Trévézel.

" To the East, the old bell-tower of Taulé whose spire dominates the new church. Then the wooded Tréguier hills, the Moor beacon, and finally the outstanding Point de Primel, always white with sea-foam ".

What remains today of this old monument, where our forebears over the centuries met at every important moment of life, is in a very sad state. The nave doesn't have a roof anymore, and the bell-tower, that still retains its majesty, needs urgent care, if we want to bequeath to the future generations this flower of Breton religious architecture.