Chapelle du Chêne, Catholic pilgrimage chapel in Vimartin-sur-Orthe, France

The Chapelle du Chêne is a Catholic chapel and Marian pilgrimage site in Saint-Martin-de-Connée, Mayenne. Its granite facade, built from 1896 to 1899 to plans by Jules Tessier, has a central gable with a white statue in a niche, a round-arched three-lancet window, and a three-arch entrance porch. The nave, tribune, campanile and outdoor porch were added to the earlier choir and transept.

A statuette of the Virgin was placed in an oak in the 15th century on the Grande-Métairie farm. According to a 17th-century legend, a Count of Belin, threatened by a bull, vowed to build a chapel there if spared; the first small chapel is not documented before 1663. It became a pilgrimage site, was sold as national property during the Revolution, and the statuette was found broken in the oak in 1860. The present chapel was built from 1867 and completed in 1896–1899.

The Virgin is venerated here as Notre-Dame des Douleurs, a title recalling the statuette of Mary holding the dead Christ placed in the oak in the 15th century. The tree is now withered, and the restored statuette was carried back in procession from the parish church on 21 October 1860.

The chapel stands in the hamlet of La Grande Métairie, on the D204 road in the commune of Saint-Martin-de-Connée, now part of Vimartin-sur-Orthe. The 1896-1899 porch with its three round arches was built for open-air Mass during regional pilgrimages, so the forecourt is the natural gathering point. The granite facade faces the former meadow where the oak stood.

The venerated statuette of Notre-Dame des Douleurs was found broken in the oak in 1860 by the vicar Lamarre and restored by the sculptor Foubert of Sillé. It was carried back in procession from the church of Saint-Martin on 21 October 1860 with the permission of Bishop Wicart.