Avranches

AVRANCHES. - Located between Brittany and Normandy, near the mouth of the river Sée, in the department of the Manche. In the Roman age Abricantes was part of the second Lugdunensian province; the Notitia Dignitatum indicates it as the residence of the praefectus dalmatorum militum. Its Christian origins are obscure. Bishop Nepus took part in the Council of Orléans of 511. The poet Fortunatus wrote the life of Bishop St. Paternus. Bishop St. Aubertus, around the beginning of the 8th century, founded the monastery and the church of St. Michael on Mont Tombe; later John of Bayeux (1061-69) wrote the Liber de officiis ecclesiasticis.

The cathedral and other churches were sacked in 1562 by the Calvinists; when the diocese was suppressed in 1790 it counted 180 parishes. It is now united with that of Coutances (v.). The cathedral, dedicated to St. Andrew, an imposing construction with three square towers, was built upon a promontory dominating the bay of Mont St. Michel; begun in 1025, it was consecrated in 1121. Restored in the 15th century, it collapsed in 1794. The churches of St. Gervasius, that of St. Saturninus and of Notre-Dame-des-Champs, although ancient in origin, have all been rebuilt.

Very precious is its library of over 25,000 volumes and rich in 270 manuscripts, almost all coming from the ancient abbeys of Mont-St-Michel, of Montmul and of Savigny, with admirable miniatures of the Romanesque period. (v. also COUTANCES).

Enrico Josi