Page 44 - Bulletin, Vol.82 No.1, April 2023

The land belonged to Abbe Pierre (1912-2007), a world-known French Catholic priest,
who was a Resistance fighter and a politician; and who founded in 1949 the Emmaüs
movement, aimed at helping the poor, the homeless and the refugees. This movement
is now active in 41 countries in the world (including Switzerland).

In August 1999, Abbe Pierre in Saillon hosted the Tibetan monk. When they met, the
two men did not make any speeches on that day, they simply decided to work together,
and they planted three vines. Then they released two doves into the sky. After that,
Abbe Pierre served the Dalai Lama the Emmaüs soup and bequeathed him this small
piece of land with these three vines.

This fact became soon known, and the number of curious visitors increased. This place
became a kind of pilgrimage site. Every year, personalities from the world of sport, arts
and politics come to visit or to work in the vineyard; among those were: Zinedine
Zidane, David Douillet, Caroline of Monaco, Roger Moore, Michael Schumacher, Hans
Erni, Jane Birkin, Gilbert Bécaud, Claudia Cardinale, Mgr Gaillot, Sister Emmanuelle,
Danielle Mitterrand, Barbara Hendricks and so many others. This list is long. Thus, the
vineyard Farinet became “The vineyard of peace and openness". It is also become a
place of spiritual pilgrimage, as pilgrims from all over the world have brought and
deposited there the parts or stones from their sacred places: the Chinese Wall, the
Pyramids of Egypt, the Berlin Wall, and other well-known prestigious or less known
places.
It could be a wonderful idea to make an excursion to this place on a beautiful spring or
autumn day!

Who was Abbe Pierre?
In November 1949, Abbe Pierre founded the Emmaüs Association to fight against
poverty and homelessness. During the housing crisis, his Community helped to provide

42 AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 82 No. 1, 2023-04

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