A sculptor has secured a £500 grant from Falmouth Town Council to go towards the costs of parading a giant statue of St Piran through town before it is loaded onto a ship bound for Brittany.

The 11 foot tall hand-chiselled statue will be transported on May 5-6 from Mabe down Commercial Road and onto North Pier, Customs House Quay where it will be loaded onto a traditional ship bound for Brittany’s La Vallée des Saints sculpture park.

There will be a Breton market on the pier to go alongside the statue’s procession and celebrate the Celtic heritage shared between Brittany and Cornwall.

In imitation of the legend that tells of St Piran having a millstone placed around his shoulders before being thrown into the sea by Irish pagans, where he then floated across the sea before landing at Perranporth, the statue has a ring of aluminium around the figure, which is made of Irish granite.

The statue will be the 100th to be placed in La Vallée des Saints to mark its tenth anniversary, and will be the only one carved outside of Brittany. It weighs 11 tonnes and has an inscription on its base reading: “Oh my god, my boat is so small and the ocean so big,” from the Breton fisherman’s prayer.

The massive St Piran statue was carved by hand in one of Cornwall’s remaining traditional granite quarries (Trenoweth Quarry) in Mabe by sculptors David Paton from Cornwall, and Stephane Rouget from Brittany.

When it comes to rest in Brittany, it will sit in La Vallée des Saints alongside 99 other sculptures of saints on a hillside. The park is open to the public for 24 hours a day and is completely free.