In 1844, Madame d'Orme sold the Château de Ranton to the priest of Ranton: Abbé Aubineau. He did much to preserve the Château and to rekindle interest in the shrine of "La bonne Dame de Ranton". This chapel, which dated from the 14th century, contained a small statue of the Virgin which had apparently been found by a wood-cutter at this spot. The legend was that he took it home, but it returned to its original place, three times. In the revolution, the chapel was sold as public property. It was bought by a magistrate, M. Havard, who donated it to the Diocese. It was re-built as a larger church in 1871 through the efforts of the Reverend Pere Briant, an architect and organiser of one of the first pilgrimages to Lourdes. The larger church gave a new impetus to pilgrimages to Ranton, which had been a regular feature of life in the Middle Ages.