Quimper, Diocese of

QUIMPER, Diocese of. - Diocese and capital city of the department of Finistère in France, situated at the confluence of the Steir with the Odet, which form an estuary. The name comes from the Breton Kemper (= confluence); until the French Revolution it was generally called Q. - Corentin after the first bishop. The diocese is a suffragan of Rennes; the patron of the diocese is St. Corentin.

The diocese has the same boundaries as the department, with an area of 7,029 sq km and a population of 724,635 inhabitants, almost all Catholics. It has 340 parishes served by 1,080 diocesan priests and 18 regulars; it has a major seminary and a minor seminary; 4 male religious communities and 6 female. The bishop has united the title of Léon. It is the ancient Corisopium of the Romans. The institution of the Breton Kingdom is attributed to the legendary Breton Gradlon, who came from Kerné (Cornwall). In 1060 the Kingdom became a county; Q. was sacked in 1344 by Charles of Blois and conquered in 1367 by John IV of Montfort. Of the bishops of Q. there are two ancient catalogues, one in a cartulary of the Cathedral transcribed around the year 1417, now in the National Library of Paris (ms. lat. 9891); the other, in Quimperlé, is a manuscript of the 12th century and goes up to Rodolfo (d. 1158), to which the others were added up to Randido (1219-45). The name of the bishop in 453 is uncertain. At the Council of Vannes around the year 465 the bishop is Albinus or Liberalis; Corentin in his late biography is given as the first bishop of the diocese: he is celebrated on 12 December. Felix was present in 855 at Thionville and around the year 848 went to Rome to Leo IV. Anaweten is remembered in documents of 857 and 859. A second Felix is from the time of the Synod of Soissons (866). In more recent times are remembered Card. Nicola Caetani of Sermoneta (1538-1585), Philippe de La Chambre, cardinal of Boulogne (1546-50). The diocese, suppressed by the French Revolution, was re-established by the Concordat of 1802 (Cornouilles and St-Pol de Léon, and a small part of the dioceses of Tréguier and Vannes). From 1802 to '59 it was a suffragan of Tours and from that year of Rennes.

The Cathedral, dedicated to St. Corentin, was built between the years 1230-1515, with an interruption from 1336 to 1440; it is laid out over the earlier Romanesque building. It offers the characteristic Breton Gothic, with a Norman reminiscence in the choir, which presents a deviation toward the left. The interior, 92 m long and 20 m high, is divided at the entrance by two strong round pillars, and in the rest by clusters of slender columns; the choir has square pillars; the high altar, in gilded bronze and enamels, is modern; in the cathedra the panels represent episodes from the life of St. Corentin; the windows have stained glass with scenes from the first half of the 15th century, partly restored. In the Cathedral are the tombs of the bishops: Even de la Forêt (1290); G. de Monceaux (1416); B. de Romadec (1445), A. Le Maout (1493); Le Moël (1501), Sergent (1781), Graveran (1854), Nouvelle (1887), Lamarche. The exterior in Gothic style is from 1425, with a large central portal and two towers 76 m high; there is an equestrian statue redone by King Gradlon. The sculptures of the central portal are partly deteriorated; one can distinguish there the lion of Montfort supporting the banners of Brittany; better preserved is the right portal, called that of St. Catherine, with an Adoration of the Virgin and statuettes of the Saint. The episcopal palace, erected for the most part by Bishop Msgr. C. de Bohon (1508-40), has been transformed into the Musée départemental breton. In the Hôtel de ville are the Library and the Musée de Beaux-arts. In the suburb of Q. is Locmaria, inhabited in the Roman age and remembered in documents of the 11th century as civitas Aquilonia. Its church, originally a priory, is a Romanesque building of the 11th century with a choir and transept of the 12th. To the facade were added a portico of the 14th century and a window opened in the 15th; the square tower is of the 11th century with mullioned windows. The interior with three naves has Romanesque arches; it preserves a wooden statue of St. Peter from the 16th century. Remains of the cloister of the 12th century and of the priory are to the right of the facade. At Q. were born the Ven. M. La Nobletz, Dominican (1577-1652); the Bl. J. Maunoir, S.J. (1603-83); the Jesuit Father Hardouin (1646-1729); the explorer De Kerguelen (1731-97); the physician Laënnec (1781-1826).

St-Pol. - The Welsh monk Paul Aurelian, having come from the region of Glamorgan, after founding some monasteries on the island of Ouessant settled in the place that today bears his name, where he established a monastery in a Roman castrum, which later became the seat of the diocese favored by the Breton count Withur and of which Paul was the first bishop. His successors were Cetomerinus, Liberalis, Clutwinus (851-57), another Liberalis (ca. 866) and Hinveretus. Subsequently are remembered G. de Hersauzon (1327); R. De Neuville (1562-1613); F. Visdelou (1661-71); De La Marche (1776-92), d. in London in 1806. The diocese was suppressed in 1792.

The ancient Cathedral is one of the most remarkable churches of Brittany, with naves in the ogival style of the 13th and 14th centuries, choir and transept redone between 1431-50; double ambulatory of the 16th century. In the transept are remains of paintings with figures of angels; in the choir 69 stalls of 1512 with representations of animals, foliage, human figures and Gothic decorations. One notices there the funerary monuments of the bishops of St-Pol: G. de Hersauzon; R. de Neuville; De Rieux-Sourdéac; F. Visdelou; De La Marche. Some stained-glass windows are of the 16th century. The western facade is of the 13th century with two square towers of the end of the same century. The south facade has a portico with four bays with ogival vaults of the 13th century, but with twin doors of the 15th (L. Th. Lecureux, St-Pol-de-Léon, La Cathédrale, Paris n.d.).

Within the diocese of Q., between the two rivers Isole and Ellé in the village of Anaurol, St. Guntiernus, prince of Cambria, founded in the 6th century a hermitage where he was later buried. In 1029 Albert Cagniart, count of Cornwall, founded there the Benedictine abbey of the Holy Cross, which had as its first abbot St. Gurloès (d. 1057); around the monastery there came to form a populated center, Quimperlé. The church of the Holy Cross was erected between 1029-83, imitating the layout of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. In the central rotunda is placed the raised high altar surrounded by a circular ambulatory with three apses and a portico in the shape of a cross. The columns bear capitals carved with birds and animals. The "Jubé" of 1541, although mutilated, offers sculptures in white stone from Tallebourg (Saintonges) representing the Madonna, the Evangelists, the busts of eight prophets and eight heads of Fathers of the Church; above, Christ in glory. The crypt below has three naves and contains the tomb of St. Gurloès. The abbey passed in 1665 to the Congregation of the Maurists (Cottineau, II, coll. 2390-91).

Among the saints venerated in the diocese is St. Hiltutus (Iltut or Ydeuc), disciple of St. Cadoc and founder of the monastery of Lan-Iltut; St. Guengalaenus or Guenolé, founder of the abbey of Landevennec, which was destroyed by the French Revolution; there remain only remnants of a chapel of the 11th century, the Roman portal, column shafts, the area of the choir with three chapels and the apse with the tomb of St. Guenolé; there was also the tomb of King Gradlon; the granite statue of St. Corentin was placed by the last regular abbot Tangry du Vieux-Chastel (d. 1522).

Enrico Josi