ORLÉANS, Diocese of. - Diocese and city, seat of the prefecture of the department of Loiret, on the right bank of the Loire, at the confluence of the canal d'O.
It has an area of 6722 sq km with a population of 348,865 inhabitants, of whom over 300,000 are Catholics distributed in 340 parishes, served by 388 diocesan priests and 31 regulars; it has 2 seminaries, 5 male religious communities and 76 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 303).
"Cenabum," conquered by Julius Caesar in 52 B.C., was a very ancient religious, commercial and road center; after having been part of the civitas Carnutum, at the end of the 3rd century or the beginning of the 4th century A.D. it became the civitas Aurelianorum.
The list of the bishops of O. is handed down by the first collection of St. Alban of Angers (cod. Vat. Reg. 465); it ends with Raniero (ca. 1066-82). L. Duchesne held that the list originally went as far as Odolrico. The first bishop was Diclopitus, who signed in 346 the act of absolution of St. Athanasius: he was followed by Alitus and Desianus; then came Enurtius or Fortius, who was at the Council of Valencia in 374 (he is indicated under Sept. 7 in the Hieronymian Martyrology; but his biography is from the first half of the 9th century); his successor Anianus saved O. from Attila (the Hieronymian Martyrology recalls his deposition on Nov. 17 and a translation on June 14; the Bern manuscript adds there: "et liberatio civitatis ipsius a Chunis"); then Prosper and Flosculus, who are also found in the Hieronymian Martyrology under June 29 and Feb. 2; Eusebius, Leontius, Antoninus and Marcus assisted respectively at the Councils of O. of the years 511, 533, 538 and 541; at that of 549 the innocence of Marcus was recognized. Ricomerus was at the Council of Paris of 573; Namatius at those of Mâcon of 581 and 585; Ando at those of 627 at Clichy and in 650 at Chalon-sur-Saône; Eucherius died in exile at St-Frond in 739. In the time of Charlemagne the bishop was Theodulf, also a poet, then Jonas 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 Valterius (868-891); St. Theodoric ca. 1016-22; later the cardinals Reginald of Chartres (1439-49) and John of O. (1521-1533); A. Sanguin (1535-50), then archbishop of Toulouse; P. du Cambout de Coislin (1666-1706); Merlot (1839-43), then archbishop of Tours and of Paris; P.-H. Coullié (1878-1893), then archbishop of Lyon, and A.-St. Touchet (1894-1926), propagator of the cult of St. Joan of Arc. Clovis occupied O. in 498, then came the Kingdoms of Chlodomer and of Guntram; in 612 Chlothar II united 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, killed in 1407; then O. underwent the siege by the English, in which the heroic St. Joan of Arc (v.) shone. Louis XII in 1499 united 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 his brother Gaston duke of O., then duke of O. was Philip, brother of Louis Philip, who became king of France in 1830.
During the Revolution O. was the seat of the High National Court that judged political trials; Collot d'Herbois and Barrère raged there. O. was occupied by Germany in 1815 and in 1870 until March 1871. It suffered greatly from the bombardments of June 1940 and in the years 1943-44.
The cathedral of S. Croce rises above two earlier buildings, the first from the 4th century, enlarged by a Carolingian rotunda, burned in 989; the second, a Romanesque building between the end of the 10th century and the 11th century, transformed into Gothic in 1287 by Bishop Gilles Gasté, left unfinished and set on fire by the Huguenots in 1562. Of it there survive the nine chapels of the choir (end of the 13th century) and other elements of the 14th century. Henry IV in 1601 laid the first stone of the present Basilica; the works continued until 1829 and various architects collaborated on it, among them the Jesuit Father S. Martillange; the facade 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 funeral monuments of the bishops of O., Cardinals De Coislin (1666-1706) and Touchet (1926), and of Msgr. Dupanloup. Beneath the choir is the large crypt explored in 1937-38, bringing back to light the Romanesque basilica of the end of the 10th century with remodellings of the 11th century; it had an ambulatory; at a lower level are the remains of the primitive rectangular basilica and the fragments of a rotunda with a large mosaic of the Carolingian age with related inscriptions. Three bishops' tombs were found, two from the 13th century and one from the beginning of the 14th, with artistic objects now preserved in the treasury of the Cathedral (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). In O. Councils were held in the years 511 (July 10); 533 (June 23); 538 (May 7); 541 (May 14); 549 (Oct. 28); between 639 and 641 and in 1022.
The old 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, coming in part from the abbey of St-Benoît-sur-Loire, and many incunabula; furthermore the Desnoyers collection, which comprises over 10,000 volumes relating to O.
St-Aignan, 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 the sacristy are from the 15th century; three chapels on the left from the 16th century. The crypt is from the 11th century.
St-Euverte, church erected between the 9th and the 12th century, demolished during the Hundred Years' War, rebuilt in 1445; devastated by the Huguenots in 1562, repaired until 1655, closed and abandoned with the Revolution, later reopened for worship and today the chapel of a boarding school (C. Berrois, Histoire de l'abbaye de St-Euverte, Orléans 1919). Where the parish of S. Marco is, the Benedictine priory of St-Gervais was founded in 817, later dedicated at the close of the 15th century by Charlotte of Savoy to St. Faretrio (Phallier), demolished by the Huguenots in 1562 (Cottineau, II, col. 2140).
N.-Dame de Bonne Nouvelle (de bono nuntio) founded in 1026 for Benedictine nuns; in 1126 a Benedictine priory, which passed to the Maurists in 1653. The monastery, situated on top of a Roman monument, is today occupied by the prefecture (ibid., II, col. 2142). Notre-Dame de Recouvrance was consecrated on 14 April 1519 on the site of an 11th-century chapel dedicated to Notre-Dame de Bon Secours. The church of St-Pierre-le-Pueller, with architectural remains from the 12th and 13th centuries and a Romanesque apse. The church of St. Paul, with three naves, from the last Gothic period (16th century), with a cloister and bell tower of 1629, was set on fire in 1940. On the right nave is the shrine chapel of Notre-Dame des Miracles, which dates back to the 9th century; before the ancient statue burned in 1562 by the Huguenots, Joan of Arc had prostrated herself in thanksgiving on 8 May 1429 after the liberation of O. The church of St-Pierre-du-Martroi, formerly St-Pierre Ensentele, erected in the time of Francis I, was devastated by the Huguenots and restored at the end of the 16th century. The church of St. Paterno was rebuilt in 1876; St-Loup ("S. Lupus ad Ligerim"), originally "Vinea B. Mariae," was a priory of Benedictine nuns founded in 1235 at St-Jean-de-Bray by St. Louis; in 1639 it was transferred to Fr. and Urban VIII erected it into an abbey, suppressed in 1792 (ibid., col. 2141). La Madeleine, of the Order of Fontevrault, was founded in 1113 by Robert of Arbrissel, destroyed by the English in 1428, rebuilt in 1466 and suppressed by the French Revolution (it was in the present suburb of la Madeleine [ibid., col. 2141]). About 3 km from O. was the abbey of Micy, today St-Mesmin, founded by St. Euspice, priest of Verdun (d. 510) and by his nephew St. Maximin (Mesmin, d. 520) on land donated in 508 by Clovis, dedicated first to St. Stephen. It had great cultural importance. It was sacked several times in the years 732, 856, 897, 1562 and restored on several occasions from the time of Theodulf and of St. Benedict of Aniane ca. 1830; the abbot de la Rochefoucauld called the Feuillants there in 1608. It was suppressed in 1790 by the French Revolution; the last abbot, Chapt de Rastignac, was one of the victims in Paris in the prison of the Abbaye in Sept. 1792 (E. Jarossay, Histoire de l'abbaye de Micy-St-Mesmin-lez-Orléans, son influence religieuse et sociale, d'après les archives et les documents originaux, pièces justificatives et gravures, Orléans 1902; Cottineau, II, coll. 1845-46). The house where St. Joan of Arc lived from 29 April to 9 May 1429 was damaged in 1940 by the bombardments.
The schools of O. had notable importance, where King Guntram of Burgundy and his son Gondebald were educated; they flourished in the Carolingian age with Bishop Theodulf and even more from the 11th to the 14th century. Teachers of O. wrote treatises on rhetoric entitled Ars or Summa dictaminis; in 1230 not a few students of the University of Paris moved to O.; in 1298 Boniface VIII also charged the doctors of O. with commenting on the Decretals. Clement V was a pupil of O. and with a bull of 27 Jan. 1306 conferred on it the title and privileges of a university. Of the great university buildings there remains only the so-called "Salle des Thèses" of the end of the 15th century, which housed the city's first public library; today it is the seat of the "Société archéologique et historique de l'Orléanais." St. Lifard, abbot of Meung-sur-Loire, is commemorated on 3 June in the Hieronymian Martyrology. The saints of the diocese are many; among them St. Baudilius, martyred at Nîmes (v.); St. Lucanus, patron of Loigny; St. Donatus, the abbot of May; St. Mesma, sister of St. Maximin; St. Felicola, patroness of Gien; the king of the Burgundians, St. Sigismund, and St. Guntram; St. Lupus, bishop of Sens; St. William, abbot of Fontainjean and then archbishop of Bourges; the Blessed Odo, bishop of Cambray, and Reginald, dean of the collegiate church of St-Aignan; Georges Goyau (v.) was also from O. In 1130 St. Bernard and Innocent II were at O.
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Enrico Josi