Deciding as a young girl against marriage, Vefa (short for Geneviève) chose instead to pursue the only option available for an unmarried young woman of her time: religion. She joined a convent associated with the
Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales in
Brittany, located in northwestern France, and remained a nun for 15 years. It was in that religious capacity, during one In 1910, at 38 years of age, she married Joseph-Marie Potiron de Boisfleury, but the marriage failed, lasting only three months. A vigorous promoter of the
Breton language (which is of
Celtic origin), she is quoted as saying, "Bilingualism is a huge advantage! Children must be taught Breton and then they will learn English in three or four months." In 1930, she was admitted to the community in Brittany known as
Goursez Vreizh as a bard under a new name
Brug ar Menez Du (Heather of the Black Mountains). In 1949, she was the first to use a bilingual notarized agreement in France, written in both French and Breton. After Saint-Pierre's death in 1967, the Menez Kamm cultural center flourished for some years, but despite all the dedication and hard work to keep the manor open as a place to live and learn Breton ways, financial difficulties increased, and in October 1976, the center closed. The property was then returned to the Saint-Pierre family and, as of 2018, the manor and its land had become a farm. == Selected publications ==