A look back at the celebrations of Saint Devote in Monaco

The boat was set ablaze on the quayside this Thursday evening by Princess Charlene and her children to keep alive a tradition dating back nearly 150 years, in memory of this young Corsican martyr.

Even if Covid played the spoilsport preventing Prince Albert II - who tested positive on Tuesday - from taking part, the festivities of Saint Devota's Day started in fervour this Thursday evening on the Port Hercule with a religious procession leading to the church of Saint Devota for the first highlight of the celebration of the Principality's patron saint.

Devota, a young Corsican martyred for her Christianity, according to legend, whose body drifted on a boat from the Isle of Beauty to the valley of Gaumates in the Principality. In the 18th century, Honoré II made her the patron saint of the Principality. And since 1874, a symbolic boat has been burnt every 26 January to mark this religious fervour.

Without the sovereign, it was Princess Charlene and her children, Hereditary Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, who set the boat alight on the Quai Albert-Ier, accompanied by Corsican songs.