Fundraising Trunks

Many French churches have what they call 'un tronc' (a trunk). They are boxes with a slot so people can make donations in cash. It can be connected to lighting a candle and the money is often destined to be alms for the poor (generally managed by Caritas), or sometimes to cover expenses linked to the parish or the maintenance of the church. There will usually be a note somewhere saying what the funds collected are to be used for. Sometimes the collection box will be associated with a particular saint.

 

A typical 'tronc'. This one is in Poitiers Cathedral. It seems to be raising money for the Cathedral bookshop, but I don't know to what purpose the money will be put.

Because they are left for the public to access, without surveillance, they are vulnerable to theft. So they are often inserted into a wall or floor, and locked, with the key held by someone responsible in the church.

 

One of my clients hammering a tack into the trunk in Loches.

In some churches the trunk is a literal tree trunk and those who wish to give 'buy' a tack and hammer it in (in lieu of buying a candle). This had a resurgence in 2010 when a priest in Dordogne revived the practice, but Saint Ours in Loches is one of only two churches to have an 'original' trunk, dating from the 1960s.

 

The porch of Saint Ours in Loches, with the 'tronc' on the left.

I read an account of a man convicted in the 19th century of robbing a 'tronc'. Apparently he used a 'baguette' smothered in glu* and poked it through the coin slot to laboriously pick up a few coins at a time. It took me a few seconds to realise that in French a 'baguette' can be a variety of long thin things, not necessarily a loaf of bread. So of course he was using a stick, but in the meantime, before I remembered, I'd laughed out loud at the image in my mind.

*Glu is the dreadful sticky concoction that is used to trap birds such as thrushes. Notoriously, holly bark is the source of glu. The bark is left to ferment in spring water and after some manipulation a greenish water resistant paste is produced. This is mixed with poultry fat, vinegar, oil, and turpentine, boiled whilst stirring and when ready spread on fruit trees.