St Guy of Anderlecht

Layman. Guy was a farm labourer, born in Brabant around 950, who was made sacristan of the church at Laeken near Brussels. According to legend, he invested his small savings in a business which failed. After losing his home and his job he went on a seven-year long pilgrimage, wandering from shrine to shrine as far as Jerusalem.

In 1020 he returned home exhausted and sick and died shortly afterwards at the public hospital in Anderlecht.

Through the years a cult formed around his grave and his shrine became a popular pilgrim site, particularly associated with horses.

A pilgrimage to Anderlecht by Brussels cab drivers took place every year until the start of the First World War.