The French teen who hauled a 77-lb cross up a mountain
A French teenager successfully hauled a 77‑lb cross up a mountain, demonstrating remarkable determination and faith. During the ascent, the cross was dislodged and fell from the summit, prompting Spanish climbers to replace it on the peak. The event highlights the intersection of religious devotion and mountaineering, capturing attention in the Christian community. The story is shared by Aleteia Magazine, a platform that covers spiritual and inspirational news.
4 months ago
The 18‑year‑old French landscaper apprentice Maël Le Lagadec replaced a vandalised summit cross on Aneto, the highest peak in the Spanish Pyrenees, by hauling a 77‑lb wooden cross up the mountain himself, a feat that took about 15 hours in harsh conditions1.
The original metal cross at Aneto’s summit was cut down with a power grinder and tossed into a ravine weeks before Maël’s climb1.
Determined to act rather than merely comment online, he crafted a new cross from dark walnut, measuring over three feet tall and weighing roughly 77 pounds1.
Maël set out with the new cross and nearly 110 pounds of climbing gear, accompanied by a friend with little mountaineering experience1.
He carried the cross himself throughout the climb to avoid exhausting his companion1.
The trek lasted around 15 punishing hours, traversing snow, fog, freezing temperatures and steep terrain, while onlookers watched his steady progress1.
He recalled the image of Christ bearing the Cross as exhaustion set in, yet he “never gave up” mentally1.
Although raised Catholic, Maël describes the summit cross as a symbol for both believers—who see it as protecting the valley—and climbers, for whom it serves as a landmark and goal1.
The story resonated beyond France, highlighting a preference for restoration over cynicism and effort over mere commentary1.
Maël remains calm about the possibility of future vandalism, stating that another cross would simply be carried up again if needed1.
Examine the Catholic tradition of carrying symbolic crosses in pilgrimage
Carrying a symbolic cross during pilgrimage is a Catholic practice with deep roots, but it is not merely an outward custom: the Church consistently ties it to Christ’s Paschal Mystery, interior conversion, and the disciple’s duty to “take up” his own cross.
Catholic pilgrimage is not only movement through space; it is a spiritual journey. In the Church’s teaching on Jubilees, pilgrimage is linked to the human condition as a “journey,” and it is described as involving repentance, asceticism, vigilance, and interior preparation for a change of heart.
The cross, in turn, is the visible Christian “language” for what discipleship means: the Church explicitly interprets the Via Crucis as a journey made “in the Holy Spirit,” in which believers desire to be conformed to Christ’s Passion and follow behind the Master, daily carrying their own crosses.
So the symbolic cross in pilgrimage functions as a sign that:
The Church is very clear that gestures and symbols in popular piety can be truly beneficial—provided they express the interior heart. The Directory on Popular Piety states that popular piety includes “bodily, gestural and symbolic expressions… pilgrimages, processions… [and] wearing medals and badges,” and these are “direct and simple ways of giving external expression to the heart and to one’s commitment.”
But it immediately adds the necessary warning: without the interior aspect, symbolic gesture “runs the risk of degenerating into empty customs or mere superstitions.”
This criterion governs how a pilgrim may carry a cross:
Catholic tradition presents several concrete ways a cross may be carried in pilgrimage and related devotional movements.
The Catholic Encyclopedia’s article on pilgrimages preserves an historical liturgical pattern: the Church includes prayers and blessings for items associated with travel to holy places. It includes “the blessing of the cross for one on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem,” asking God to bless what is “humbly devoted to Thee,” so that the “banner of the venerated Cross” becomes strength against temptation and protection “by the way” and “in Thy house.”
It also describes clothing marked with the cross being given after sprinkling with holy water, with the pilgrim receiving it as a means of safety and benediction toward the Sepulchre.
Additionally, the same pilgrimage section contains prayers for scrips (traveler’s coverings) and staves that include explicitly cross-related language: the priest asks that those who “wear” such things or “bear [them] in his hands” on pilgrimage may be protected by God’s guardianship and reach the joys of eternal vision.
Key point: in these traditions, the “symbolic cross” is not treated as magic; it is treated as a blessed sign oriented toward God and the saints’ intercession.
Beyond personal devotion, the Church also uses crosses in public rites—especially as processional crucifixes. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines a processional cross as “simply a crucifix which is carried at the head of a procession,” usually mounted on a long staff so it can be seen.
This matters for pilgrimage because processions commonly occur on pilgrimage days and at major shrines. In that public context, the crucifix is carried as a “standard” that gives bodily form to prayer and direction.
Historical tradition also connects crosses to the identity of those undertaking holy journeys. The pilgrimage article notes that “the cross betokened the crusader,” while also recognizing that crosses could be taken in other contexts, and it is situated within the wider system of “pilgrim signs” worn or displayed on the journey.
And the Church’s older rites include an explicit “imposition of the cross” when someone sets out for the Holy Land or for defense of the Christian faith. In the Catholic Encyclopedia’s account of the blessing and imposition, the recipient is told to “Receive the sign of the cross… in token of the Cross, Passion, and Death of Christ,” for the defense of body and soul, with a safe return “amended.”
Key point: the tradition links carrying the cross-sign to a real spiritual commitment—not simply to remembrance, but to imitation of Christ’s saving meaning in one’s life and journey.
A Catholic cross can be wood, metal, or cloth—but Catholic teaching insists that devotion to the cross is not devotion to matter. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith explains that for believers the cross is “not simply a religious ornament” but “a sign that speaks to the heart,” recalling that Christians are called daily to “take up [their] cross” and follow Christ.
It then stresses a crucial distinction: Christians “do not adore the wood or metal,” because what is adored is the One who offered his life upon it—Christ Crucified.
In other words, even when a pilgrim carries a cross visibly, the Church’s theology insists that its symbolism must be Christ-centered and sacramentally coherent—the cross is a tangible help for faith, not a replacement for Christ’s Paschal Mystery.
The same document also warns against misleading comparisons of “signs” of the cross: it states the uniqueness and unrepeatable value of Christ’s cross of salvation, and that other “signs” cannot be considered “on the same plane.”
Popes frequently interpret pilgrimage symbols as meant to awaken an interior journey. For example, John Paul II, speaking to a Jubilee pilgrimage community that crossed the threshold of the Holy Door, explains that many carried the walking stick they carved during Lent as a sign of “spiritual support” and as a symbol of interior pilgrimage that must lead to a richer life of faith, hope, and love.
John Paul II also describes the traditional symbols of the Way to Santiago (including a staff) as expressing the spirit of conversion—a desire to return to God, along with purification and penance—adding that the way is important insofar as it ends in a meeting with the Lord through the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist.
And Paul VI, at the conclusion of the Way of the Cross, connects carrying the cross with discipleship: it means confronting life with courage, transforming difficulties into moral energy, truly learning to love, and not being afraid to carry one’s cross “with Christ.”
In Catholic tradition, carrying a symbolic cross in pilgrimage is legitimate and meaningful when it is:
This is why the Church’s tradition often pairs cross-carrying with blessings, processions, and explicitly stated spiritual aims, making the symbol a help for the road toward God rather than a substitute for it.