CAEN. - Currently the capital of the department of Calvados (France). It is first mentioned in 1027 under the name Cadomum, but it was still a simple village 12 km from the Channel when William the Conqueror and his wife Matilda erected, in atonement for sins committed, the Abbaye aux dames, with its adjoining church dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity (1066), and the Abbaye aux hommes, with the church consecrated to St. Stephen (1077). It may be said that the true founding of C. dates from the construction of these two abbeys, which gave the city a great boost.
Other notable churches are: St. Nicholas (1083-93); St. Peter (1521-35); St. Saviour, with two apses, one Gothic, the other 17th-century; Notre-Dame-de-la-Gloriette (1609). It is part of the diocese of Bayeux and has seven parishes. It has been a university seat since 1436, and has an Académie des arts, sciences et belles lettres and the Society of Antiquaries of Normandy. But above all mention must be made of the Institut du Bon Sauveur, founded in 1712 at St-Lô by a small group of "sœurs associées pour les petites écoles"; from 1726 the institution took the name "Sœurs du Bon Sauveur" from the small oratory attached to it, dedicated to the Most Holy Saviour. Anna Leroy and Marguerite Lecouvreur de la Fontaine erected a house of it at C. in 1720. In 1790 the priest Pierre Jamet, b. at Fresne (Orne) on 12 Sept. 1762, d. at C. on 12 Jan. 1845, was appointed its confessor; he brought the institution to such prosperity that he is regarded as the second founder of the Institut du Bon Sauveur. His very special merit is the establishment of a new method of education for the deaf and mute (G. A. Simon, L'abbé Pierre-François Jamet, Caen 1935). - See Pl. XIX.
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Enrico Josi