LAVAL, DIOCESI di. – Diocese and chief town of the department of Mayenne in France.
It has an area of 5,170 sq. km., with a population of 254,479 inhabitants, of whom 253,500 are Catholics. The diocese is divided into 6 archpresbyterates and 27 deaneries, with 297 parishes served by 538 diocesan priests and 76 religious priests; it has a major and a minor seminary; 4 male and 138 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, pp. 241–42).
The city of L., situated on both banks of the Mayenne, is of feudal origin (Vallum Guidonis). From the thirteenth century until the French Revolution it passed under the lordship of various noble families. It was occupied by the English in 1428, but was abandoned the following year. The diocese was created by Pius IX by a bull dated 30 June 1855, through the division of the diocese of Le Mans; the Church of the Trinity was raised to cathedral status. The first bishop elected of
L. was Msgr. E. Bougaud (v.), who died after only eight months. It is a suffragan diocese of Tours. The Church of the Trinity preserves the central tower and the southern portal from the end of the twelfth century, while the choir and the northern portal are from the Renaissance. It contains the funerary monument of the bishop of Rennes, G. Ouvrain (1347). The Church of S. Venerando (1495–1563) contains noteworthy sixteenth-century stained-glass windows; the Church of Notre-Dame-des-Cordeliers was erected between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries.
In the diocese there are well-known sanctuaries such as those of Notre-Dame-de-Prix in L. and Notre-Dame-de-l'Epine at Evron, Notre-Dame-des-Freux at Bellebranche, Notre-Dame - d'Avénères and Notre-Dame-de-Courlefosse at Fougerolles, as well as other pilgrimage sites that have been visited for centuries.