Curé's Cross

The croix du curé was erected following the death of Everard Deleau, the pastor of Xhignesse, who was ambushed and murdered by the Renard brothers on October 16, 1778. A few days earlier, a theft had been discovered in the church of Xhignesse, and the pastor had used the word "renard" during his sermon, which was enough for the Renard brothers—who regularly engaged in shady dealings—to think he was accusing them of this theft. The Renard brothers created an alibi by supposedly going to sleep in Filot's brewery and waited for the pastor at the location where the cross now stands and killed him. They hid the body in a stone quarry. Afterward, searches were organized in the area because people thought the pastor had had an accident, so they went to retrieve the body the following night to dump it in the Ourthe. A farmer who happened to see them dared not tell anyone because he was afraid of the Renards and feared being accused of the murder himself, but it gnawed at him so much that he became ill. Some time later, a court officer came to his house because one of his cows had grazed on someone else's land, but the farmer thought it was about the murder and told the story. The Renards—who incidentally had nothing to do with the theft—were arrested and convicted: they were tortured and then hanged.

Jeho