The Druids were a Celtic pagan priesthood, living in Northern France, England and Ireland around the third century BC. Not much is known about them, but it is thought that their most sacred meeting place - where sacrifices took place, important decisions were made, leaders were chosen and where the religious elders decided cases of disputes - was at or near Chartres.
Before the Roman conquest of Gaul, there may have been a sacred wood on the mound on which today's cathedral is built. The word Druid is a Celtic word meaning `knowing or finding the oak tree.' The Druids therefore held the oak tree sacred, and their secret rituals took place in oak forests.
Sacred places are determined by an intangible force which could best be described as `spirit.' This spirit, called `wouivre' in the old Gaulish language, was a current which came from the earth, known as a telluric current. It is believed that these telluric currents cris-crossed the earth, and the places where they met - where the currents were strongest - were seen as good places. Here, the land was more fertile and the people lived more happily.
Some people have taken this theory further, believing that at the sacred places where the telluric currents met, people could communicate with a spiritual power. The best of these places were marked as sacred by placing tall standing stones in a pattern, usually in a circle. These were known as `dolmens,' the most famous of which are those in Wiltshire, England, called Stonehenge. There are many of these dolmens spread over many miles around Chartres, and these existing dolmens could encircle a sacred site, now long covered up, at Chartres.
Under the cathedral, as in most churches, there is a [G 10 / crypt]. Excavation of the crypt in the 19th century revealed covered passages leading to a well 105 feet deep. It is believed this well was used in Druid ceremonies of initiation.
In the region of the well a wooden statue of a woman and child was found. It was dated as pre-Christian, that is before the fourth century AD. The statue depicts a Druidic legend, telling of a virgin who would give birth to a child who would become a saviour. The statue bore the words: Virgini pariturae, meaning `The Virgin who will give birth to a Child.' It later passed into the possession of the early Christian bishops of Chartres and was used as a Christian statue in the early churches at Chartres, built before and on the site of the existing cathedral.
Early Christian pilgrims were taken to the crypt and then along a passage located on the north side of the cathedral to a grotto - the ancient grotto of the Druids. Here, the statue of the Black Virgin was displayed. Pilgrims made their devotions and drank the water of the well which opened in the crypt.
There has been a tradition of wooden statues of the Virgin and Child at Chartres. Today there is a new wooden statue of the Virgin, carved in the 19th century, replacing the one which was burnt by Revolutionaries in 1793. The statue worshipped by the Druids, if it ever existed, has long been lost, but the well still exists.
