Last week, Monaco hosted one of its most important celebrations of the year: the feast of the principality’s patron, Sainte Dévote. The Grimaldis joined in the festivities at three events, with Princess Charlene sparkling in diamonds for each appearance.
On January 26, the Prince and Princess of Monaco brought their children, Princess Gabriella and Hereditary Prince Jacques, to Quai Albert 1er for a fiery annual tradition: the burning of a boat on the eve of the Feast of Sainte Dévote.
Each year on the eve of Sainte Dévote’s feast day, a symbolic fishing boat is brought to Port-Hercule in Monaco and set on fire. After she was martyred in Corsica around 300 AD, legend has it that Sainte Dévote’s relics were saved from a funeral pyre and put on a boat headed for Africa. A storm nearly overtook the vessel, but a dove was said to have appeared to guide the boat to the shores of Monaco, where a chapel was built in Dévote’s honor.
For a benediction service at the chapel and the traditional boat-burning ceremony that followed, Princess Charlene wore a gray wool coat with a chevron pattern. UFO No More tells us that the coat comes from Dolce & Gabbana.
She accessorized with a simple but substantial pair of diamond cluster stud earrings.
On January 27, the Prince and the Princess headed to Monaco’s cathedral for a mass celebrating the feast of the principality’s patroness. The mass was presided over by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
After the mass, the relics of Sainte Dévote were carried in a traditional procession through the Rock of Monaco, with part of the route passing directly beneath the Prince’s Palace. Prince Albert and Princess Charlene watched from a balcony above.
For the mass and the procession, Charlene was elegant in navy blue, wearing a coat with a scarf-neck detail and a matching hair ornament.
She wore the same diamond cluster stud earrings that she sported the night before, but this time she added an additional accessory: a brooch with an appropriate flame theme.
The brooch comes from Tiffany & Co. It’s the Paris Flames Brooch from the company’s line of jewels imagined by the famed designer Jean Schlumberger. The star-shaped yellow gold brooch features a centerpiece set with round brilliants. The brooch retails on the company’s website for $42,000 USD.
One more event capped off the Sainte Dévote festivities: a candlelit concert inside the principality’s cathedral on the evening of January 27. The use of dramatic lighting and draped fabrics recalls the fiery story of the patron saint. Music was provided by the Sartène Choir and the Choir of the Papal Chapel of Assisi, as well as students from the Rainier III Academy. Because Sainte Dévote was from Corsica, part of the concert program featured traditional Corsican chant singing.
Princess Charlene wore another neutral ensemble for the concert, with a long draped white jacket worn over a black dress.
More diamonds picked up the fire of the candles in the cathedral during the concert. The earrings, floralesque crescents that hug her earlobes, come from the Lebanese jewelry firm Tabbah.
We previously saw Charlene wear the earrings back in June for the closing ceremony of the Monte-Carlo Television Festival. On that occasion, she paired the diamond earrings with a sky-blue evening gown from Louis Vuitton.
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