Saintes Marie-Salome and Marie-Jacobe are the two saints for which Saintes Maries de la Mer is named. A third person, Sara, the patron saint of the gitans (or gypsies) either traveled with them, or greeted them when they arrived at the site, in a small boat. While all of these women are honored locally, this past weekend, thousands of gitans made their annual pilgrimage to Stes-Maries de la Mer, to celebrate Sara. We avoided the celebration days, but saw caravans of campers heading into and out the area. We also saw a convoy of gendarmes leaving the area after the celebration.
At any rate, Sara is very important to the gitan culture.
Today, we visited the Musee de Camargue, and enjoyed seeing a variety of artistic representations of Sara, some of which I am sharing here today.
This last depiction of Sara is very respectful of her as a patron saint, but seems to not reflect well on the Saintes Maries.
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| A closeup of Sara, patron saint of the gitans |
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| Sara with the two Saintes Maries, in their little boat |
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