ORLANDI, Nazareno. – Priest, journalist, organizer, b. in Siena on 7 Feb. 1871, d. there on 7 Aug. 1945. While still a young priest, on 5 June 1897 he founded *Il Popolo di Siena* (a Catholic weekly for the province of Siena), which he directed for 26 years, and in Jan. 1919 he expanded *L’Amico del Clero*, transforming it from a diocesan organ of Vicenza, where it had
ORLÉANS, Diocese of. – Diocese and prefectural seat of the department of Loiret, on the right bank of the Loire, at the confluence of the Orléans canal.
(II. A. Ferri, Cagliari)
It has an area of 6,722 sq. km. with a population of 348,865, of whom over 300,000 are Catholics distributed in 340 parishes, served by 388 diocesan priests and 31 regular clergy; it has 2 seminaries, 5 male religious communities and 76 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1932, p. 303).
“Cenabum,” conquered by Julius Caesar in 52 B.C., was an ancient religious, commercial, and road center; after having been part of the *civitas Carnutum*, at the end of the 3rd or beginning of the 4th century A.D. it became the *civitas Aurelianorum*.
The list of bishops of O. is preserved in the first collection of St. Albinus of Angers (Vat. Reg. cod. 465); it ends with Rainier (c. 1066–82). L. Duchesne believed that the list originally extended as far as Odolricus. The first bishop was Diclopitus, who signed the act of absolution of St. Athanasius in 346; he was followed by Alitus and Désianus; then came Enrutus or Fortius, who was at the Council of Valence in 374 (he is listed on 7 Sept. in the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum*; but his biography belongs to the first half of the 9th century); his successor Anianus saved O. from Attila (the *Hieronymianum* records his deposition on 17 Nov. and a translation on 14 June; the Bern manuscript adds: “et liberatio civitatis ipsius a Chunis”); then Prosperus and Floscellus, who are also found in the *Hieronymianum* under 29 June and 2 Feb.; Eusebius, Leontius, Antoninus, and Marcus attended the Councils of O. in the years 511, 533, 538, and 541 respectively; at the Council of 549 the innocence of Marcus was acknowledged. Ricomerus was at the Council of Paris in 573; Namatius at those of Mâcon in 581 and 585; Anolo at those of Clichy in 627 and at Chalon-sur-Saône in 650; Eucherius died in exile at St-Frond in 739. In the time of Charlemagne the bishop was Theodulf, also a poet, then Giona from 818 to 843 (J. Reviron, *Les idées politico-religieuses d’un évêque du IXe siècle, Jonas d’O. et son De institutione regia*, Paris 1930); then Agius (843–67) and Walterius (868–91); St. Theodoric c. 1016–22; later the Cardinals Reginald of Chartres (1439–49) and John of O. (1521–33); A. Sanguin (1535–50), later archbishop of Toulouse; P. du Cambout de Coislin (1666–1706); Merlot (1839–43), later archbishop of Tours and of Paris; P.-H. Coullé (1878–93), later archbishop of Lyon; and A.-St. Touchet (1894–1926), promoter of the cult of St. Joan of Arc. Clovis occupied O. in 498; then came the reigns of Clodomir and Guntram; in 612 Clotaire II reunited the Kingdom of O. with that of Neustria. From then on the city flourished more and more, where kings were often consecrated and resided. In 1344 Philip of Valois created the Duchy of O. for his son Philip, and Charles VI gave it to his brother Louis, who was killed in 1407; then O. suffered the siege of the English, in which the heroic St. Joan of Arc shone forth (v.). In 1499 Louis XII reunited O. to the crown of France. In 1562 O. became the headquarters of the Huguenots and submitted in 1594 to Henry IV. Louis XIII created Duke of O. his brother Gaston, then Duke of O. was Philip, brother of Louis-Philippe, who became king of France in 1830.
During the Revolution O. was the seat of the National High Court that judged political trials; Collot d’Herbois and Barrère sat there. O. was occupied by Germany in 1815 and in 1870 until March 1871. It suffered greatly from the bombings of June 1940 and in the years 1943–44.
The cathedral of the Holy Cross rises above two earlier buildings, the first from the 4th century, enlarged by a Carolingian rotunda, burned in 989; the second Romanesque building from the end of the 10th to the 11th century, transformed into Gothic in 1287 by Bishop Gilles Gasté, unfinished and burned by the Huguenots in 1562. There remain nine chapels of the choir (end of the 13th century) and other elements from the 14th century. Henry IV laid the first stone of the present basilica in 1601; the works continued until 1820 and various architects collaborated, among them the Jesuit Fr. S. Martillange; the façade is the work of Trouard; the interior, with five naves, measures 13 x 41 m.; the transept 53 x 27 m., and the vaults are 32 m. high. There are the funerary monuments of the bishops of O.: Cardinal de Coislin (1666–1706) and Touchet (1926), and of Msgr. Dupanloup. Beneath the choir is the large crypt explored in 1937–38, which brought to light the Roman basilica from the end of the 10th century with 11th-century restorations; it had an ambulatory; at a lower level are the remains of the primitive rectangular basilica and fragments of a rotunda with a large Carolingian organ and related inscriptions. Three tombs of bishops were found, two from the 13th century and one from the beginning of the 14th, with artistic objects now preserved in the cathedral treasury (G. Chenesseau, *Les fouilles de la cathédrale d’O.*, in *Bulletin monumental*, 97 (1938), pp. 73–94; id., *Fouilles faites dans la cathédrale d’O. en juillet et octobre 1942*, in *Bulletin des antiquaires de France*, 1942, pp. 218–25). Councils were held in O. in the years 511 (10 July); 533 (23 June); 538 (7 May); 541 (14 May); 549 (28 Oct.); between 639 and 641 and in 1022.
The former episcopal palace (17th century) is now occupied by the municipal library founded in 1714; it possesses a series of precious manuscripts from the 7th to the 15th century, partly from the abbey of St-Benoît-sur-Loire, and many incunabula; it also includes the Desnoyers collection of over 10,000 volumes relating to O.
St-Aignan, a Benedictine abbey founded in 617 near the tomb of the holy bishop, restored several times after fires and destructions (865, 999, 1370, 1428, 1562), profaned during the French Revolution; of the ancient building there remain the transept and the choir; the chapter hall and sacristy are from the 15th century; three chapels to the left are from the 16th century. The crypt is from the 11th century.
St-Euverte, a church built between the 9th and 12th centuries, demolished during the Hundred Years’ War, rebuilt in 1445; devastated by the Huguenots in 1562, repaired until 1655, closed and abandoned during the Revolution, later returned to worship and today a chapel of a boarding school (C. Berrois, *Histoire de l’abbaye de St-Euverte*, Orléans 1919). Where the parish of St. Mark is, the Benedictine priory of St-Gervais was founded in 817, later dedicated at the end of the 15th century by Charlotte of Savoy to St. Faverius (Phallier), demolished by the Huguenots in 1562 (Cottineau, II, col. 2140).
