QUIMPER, DIOCESE of. — Diocese and chief city of the department of Finistère in France, situated at the confluence of the Steir and the Odet, which form an estuary. The name derives from the Breton Kemper (= confluence); until the French Revolution it was generally called Q. — Corentin, after the first bishop. The diocese is suffragan to Rennes; its patron 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 Catholic. It has 340 parishes served by 1,080 diocesan priests and 18 religious priests; it has a major seminary and a minor seminary, as well as four male and six female religious communities. The bishop has united to his see the title of Léon. It is the ancient Roman Corisopium. The legendary Breton Gradlon, who came from Kerné (Cornwall), is credited with establishing the Breton Kingdom. In 1060 the Kingdom was transformed into a county; Q. was sacked in 1344 by Charles of Blois and conquered in 1367 by John IV of Montfort. Two ancient catalogues of the bishops of Q. are extant: one in a cathedral cartulary transcribed around the year 1417, now in the Bibl. nationale of Paris (ms. lat. 9891); the other, in Quimperlé, is a manuscript of the 12th century and extends to Rodolphe (d. in 1158), to whom 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 was Albino or Liberale; in his late biography, Corentin is given as the first bishop of the diocese: his feast is celebrated on 12 December. Felix was present at Thionville in 855 and, around the year 848, went to Rome to see Leo IV. Anaweten is mentioned in documents of 857 and 859. A second Felix belongs to the time of the Synod of Soissons (866). In more recent times, mention may be made of Cardinal Nicola Caetani di Sermoneta (1538–1585), and Philippe de La Chambre, Cardinal of Boulogne (1546–50). The diocese, suppressed by the French Revolution, was restored by the Concordat of 1802 (Cornouilles and St-Pol de Léon, together with a small part of the dioceses of Tréguier and Vannes). From 1802 to 1859 it was suffragan to Tours, and from that year to Rennes.
The Cathedral, dedicated to St. Corentin, was built between 1230 and 1515, with an interruption from 1336 to 1440; it stands over the earlier Romanesque building. It displays the characteristic Breton Gothic style, with a Norman reminiscence in the choir, which deviates toward the left. The interior, 92 m. long and 20 m. high, is divided at the entrance by two massive round pillars, and elsewhere by bundles of slender columns; the choir has square pillars; the high altar, in gilded bronze and enamel, is modern; in the cathedra, the panels depict episodes from the life of St. Corentin; the windows contain stained glass with historical scenes from the first half of the 15th century, partly restored. The Cathedral contains 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, dates from 1425, with a large central portal and two towers 76 m. high; there is an equestrian statue, remade by King Gradlon. The sculptures of the central portal are partly deteriorated; one can distinguish the lion of the Montforts supporting the banners of Brittany. Better preserved is the right-hand portal, called that of St. Catherine, with an Adoration of the Virgin and statuettes of the Saint. The episcopal palace, largely erected by Bishop C. de Bohon (1508–40), has been transformed into the Musée départemental breton. The Hôtel de ville houses the Library and the Musée de Beaux-arts. In the suburb of Q. lies Locmaria, inhabited in the Roman period and mentioned in documents of the 11th century as civitas Aquilonia. Its church, originally a priory, is a Romanesque building of the 11th century, with choir and transept from the 12th. A 14th-century portico was added to the façade and a window opened in the 15th; the square tower dates from the 11th century and has twin windows. The three-naved interior has Romanesque arches; it preserves a wooden statue of St. Peter from the 16th century. Remains of the 12th-century cloister and priory stand to the right of the façade. Born in Q. were the venerable M. La Nobletz, Dominican (1577–1652); Blessed J. Maunoir, S. J. (1603–83); the Jesuit Father Hardouin (1646–1729); the explorer De Kerguelen (1731–97); and the physician Laënnec (1781–1826).
St-Pol. — The Welsh monk Paul Aurelianus, who came from the region of Glamorgan, after founding several monasteries on the island of Ouessant, settled in the place that now bears his name, where he established a monastery in a Roman castrum. This later became the seat of the diocese, favored by the Breton count Withur, and Paul was its first bishop. His successors were Cetomerinus, Liberale, Clutwino (851–57), another Liberale (ca. 866), and Hinvereto. Later mention is made of G. de Hersauzon (1327); R. De Neuville (1562–1613); F. Visdelou (1661–71); and De La Marche (1776–92), who died in London in 1806. The diocese was suppressed in 1792.
The ancient Cathedral is one of the most notable churches in Brittany, with naves in the ogival style of the 13th and 14th centuries, choir and transept rebuilt between 1431 and 1450, and a double ambulatory from the 16th century. In the transept are remains of paintings with figures of angels; in the choir are 69 stalls from 1512, with representations of animals, foliage, human figures, and Gothic ornamentation. The funerary monuments of the bishops of St-Pol are noteworthy: G. de Hersauzon; R. de Neuville; De Rieux-Sourdéac; F. Visdelou; De La Marche. Some of the stained-glass windows date from the 16th century. The western façade is from the 13th century, with two square towers from the end of the same century. The southern façade has a portico of four bays with ogival vaults from the 13th century, but with twin doors from 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 hamlet of Anaurol, St. Guntiern, 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, whose first abbot was St. Gurloès (d. in 1057); around the monastery an inhabited center arose, Quimperlé. The church of the Holy Cross was erected between 1029 and 1083, imitating the arrangement of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. In the central rotunda, the elevated high altar is surrounded by a circular ambulatory with three apsidioles and a cross-shaped portico. The columns bear capitals carved with birds and animals. The « Jubé » of 1541, although mutilated, offers white-stone sculptures from Tallebourg (Saintonges), representing the Madonna, the Evangelists, the busts of eight prophets, and eight heads of Fathers of the Church; above is G. Christ in glory. The underlying crypt has three naves and contains the tomb of St. Gurloès. In 1665 the abbey passed to the Congregation of the Maurists (Cottineau, II, cols. 2390–91).
Among the saints venerated in the diocese are St. Hiltutus (Iltut or Ydeuc), disciple of St. Cadoc and founder of the monastery of Lan-Iltut; and St. Guengalaenus or Guenolé, founder of the abbey of Landevennec, which was destroyed by the French Revolution. Only the remains of an 11th-century chapel, the Romanesque portal, shafts of columns, the outline of the choir with three chapels, and the apse with the tomb of St. Guenolé remain; the tomb of King Gradlon was also there. The granite statue of St. Corentin was erected by the last regular abbot, Tangry du Vieux-Chastel (d. in 1522).