Chapel of Sant Donat - Heure-en-Famenne

This concrete field chapel is dedicated to Saint Donatus.

It is located on rue Moressée in Heure-en-Famenne.

Donat is one of the so-called catacomb saints, about whom nothing is known historically, but about which there are several legends. According to legend, he belonged to the Legio fulminatrix (lightning legion). That is why Donat is depicted holding a bundle of arrows shaped by lightning .

At the age of 17, Donatus became a soldier. As commander of the 12th Legion, he was deployed around 166 in the fight against the Germanic Marcomannic raids on the Danube. During a hopeless encirclement, exhausted from thirst, Donatus and the other Christian soldiers of the Roman legion prayed for rain. Then a great storm broke out, and the torrential rain refreshed people and animals. In addition , lightning destroyed the camp of the Marcomanni . Completely awed by this miracle , Donat solemnly promised God that he would devote the rest of his life to him alone.

Author: Willem Vandenameele