RENNES. – City and archdiocese in France, capital of the prefecture of the department of Ille-et-Vilaine; the latter river divides the city into two parts: the older is on the right bank, while the other, on the left, was formed chiefly in the 19th century. It has an area of 6737 sq. km., corresponding to that of the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, and a population of 578,300 inhabitants, of whom 555,000 are Catholics distributed among the three archdeaconries of R., St-Malo and Dol, with 389 parishes served by 1130 diocesan priests and 150 religious; it has a major seminary at R. and a minor seminary at Châteaugiron, 55 male and 435 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 337).
In the Roman period it was the capital of the « Redones », whence the present name. As capital of Brittany it was contested in the 14th century by Giovanni di Montfort and Carlo di Blois; the Parliament of Bretagne often resided there in the 15th century (the building is now the Palais de justice); the city was decimated by the plague in 1632 and devastated in 1720 by a fire that lasted seven days; the entire built-up area suffered greatly from the bombings of 1940–44, in which the church of S. Martino was also destroyed. The diocese was a suffragan of Tours until 1790, when it was raised to an archdiocese with the title of metropolitan of the north-western department, with the dioceses of Le Mans, Laval, Angers, Nantes, Vannes, Quimper and St-Brieuc as suffragans. In 1802 it once again became a simple diocese, returning to be a suffragan of Tours; it was again erected as an archdiocese by Pius IX on 3 January 1859. The territories of the ancient dioceses of Dol and St-Malo were joined to the archdiocese, and the archbishop retains their titles.
The name of the bishop of 453 is uncertain. Atenio was at the Council of Tours in 461; Melanio attended that of Orléans in 511: Gregory of Tours relates a miracle that occurred in the church where he was buried (In gloria confessorum, 54); the Hieronymian Martyrology indicates his consecration on 6 January and his deposition on 6 November. Fibediolo was at the Council of Orléans in 549; Victorio was at Tours in 567: he took part in the dedication of the cathedral of Nantes (Venanzio Fortunato, Carmina, III, 5). Aimoaldo, formerly archdeacon of Mans, attended the Council of Paris in 614. Moderanno retired to the monastery of Berceto near Lucca ca. 720. Wernario was present at Germigny in 843: the Synod of Savonnières wrote to him in 859. Elettramno was consecrated in 866. The following are also remembered: the hymnographer Marbodo (1096–1123); Ivo Mayeuc of the Order of Preachers (1507–41); Arnaldo d'Ossat (1596–1600), created cardinal in 1599; Le Coz (1760–1815); Goffredo Brossais St-Marc (1848–78), cardinal from 1875; Carlo F. Place (1878–93), cardinal from 1886; G. Labouré (1893–1906), cardinal from 1897; A. Dubourg (1906–21); Cardinal A. Charost (1921–31).
The Cathedral, dedicated to S. Pietro, was begun in 1787, replacing the previous one, which was in ruins, and completed in 1844. The towers of the classical three-order façade were begun in 1541. The interior is divided into three naves by red-marble columns; the dome rises over the crossing of the transept. It contains the monuments of Cardinal Charost (1939) and Mons. Mignen (1930). The church of St-Germain is Gothic, dating from the 15th century, with a façade and square tower from the 16th century. The basilica of S. Salvatore was completed ca. 1730. Inside, the ancient image of Notre-Dame des Miracles et Vertus is greatly venerated; it is credited with the liberation from the English siege in 1357.
These two churches were elevated in 1916 to the dignity of minor basilicas. The church of St-Aubin, or Notre-Dame de Bonne-nouvelle, with its much-venerated image of the Madonna from the 14th century, is a modern building in the Gothic style of the 13th century. The present church of Toussaint is the former chapel of the Jesuit college, with a façade flanked by two towers (1624–51). The church of S. Teresa di Lisieux is modern. The former Benedictine abbey church of S. Melanio, now Notre-Dame, was rebuilt in the 14th century; the interior has three naves with a transept that is still Romanesque; on the north side of the church there remain a 17th-century wing of the abbey and a gallery of the cloister with arches decorated with angels. The present jardin de Thabor, a public promenade, is part of the former abbey garden. The abbey of S. Giorgio, founded in 992 by Duke Alano III and rebuilt by Abbess M. de la Fayette in 1670, was converted into barracks and later used for municipal services. The abbey of the Most Holy Saviour at Redon was founded ca. 825 by s. Convoin, destroyed in 869, restored in the 10th century, and transferred to the Congregation of the Maurists in 1628. It formerly belonged to the diocese of Vannes. The 13th-century abbey church has been converted into a parish church; the monastery is occupied by a college of the pp. Eudists (Cottineau, II, cols. 2422–23). Other sanctuaries are Notre-Dame-des-Marais at Fougère; Notre-Dame-de-Paimpont; and Notre-Dame-de-la-Peinière at St-Didier. R. is a university centre; the Faculty of Arts and the Public Library are housed in the former Seminary; there is a chair of Celtic languages, and the Annales de Bretagne are published there; the Library contains more than 160,000 volumes, 115 incunabula and 652 manuscripts, many of them illuminated, including the cartulary of the abbey of S. Melania, a codex of the Legenda aurea, one of the Roman de la Rose, one of the S. Graal, etc. R. also possesses an Archaeological Museum, begun with the collection of the Marquis de Roblen (18th century), with a lapidary museum, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities, partly from the Campana collection, antique furniture, porcelain, bronzes and miniatures; a Breton museum; a natural-sciences museum; and a Musée des beaux-arts with sculptures and paintings from the French, Flemish and Italian schools.
The following are from the diocese of R.: s. Gelduino (d. ca. 1076); the ven. Roberto d'Arbrissel, founder of Fontevrault (d. 1117); the b. Ralph de la Fontaye, who founded the abbey of S. Sulpizio at R. ca. 1096; s. Ivo (1253–1303); the ven. Giovanni di St. Sansons of the Carmelites (d. 1659); the ven. P. Quiriten O. P., d. 1629; the philologist Tournemine of the Society of Jesus (1661–1739); Giacomo Cartier (1494–1552), discoverer of Canada; and, from St-Malo, R. Chateaubriand (1768–1848).
DOL. — In the 6th century, St Samson, bishop, coming from England, founded a monastery at the mouth of the small Guioult River. In 848, Nominoe, king of the Bretons, was crowned there; from that time until 1199, the bishop of Dol became archbishop and primate of Brittany. The city was repeatedly sacked by the Normans and occupied by Henry II of England in 1164; John Lackland set fire to the Cathedral in 1203; Dol was retaken the following year by Guy of Thouars; the English reoccupied it in 1758. The last bishop, Mgr de Hercé, was executed by firing squad at Vannes in 1795; the diocese was suppressed by the Concordat. The Cathedral of S. Samson is in the pure Norman Gothic style of the 13th century, with additions carried out between the 14th and 16th centuries. Traces of the earlier building, burned in 1203, can be seen on the façade. The interior is 100 m. long, with a central nave of seven bays supported by cylindrical pillars formed of four columns; the side aisles have no chapels; that of S. Maglori on the right was added in the 14th century. In the southern transept is the octagonal baptismal font of the 16th century; to the north is the tomb of Bishop Thomas James (1504); the choir ends in a rectangular ambulatory with side chapels. The 14th-century stained-glass windows contain scenes from the stories of Abraham, the childhood and Passion of Our Lord, S. Samson, S. Catherine of Alexandria, and S. Margaret; the first six bishops of R., and others of Léon, Tréguier, St-Brieuc, Aleth, Vannes, Quimper, as well as the Last Judgment. On the high altar is a wooden statue of the Blessed Virgin, dating from the 14th century.
ST. MALO-ALETH. - Gallo-Roman city, “Alethum,” at the estuary of the Rance; around the middle of the 6th century, the inhabitants proclaimed the monk Malo bishop. But from the 8th century onward the city was repeatedly plundered by Norman incursions and destroyed in 1141; in the 12th century, Bishop Giovanni di Châtillon transferred the see to the island of Aaaron (named after a 6th-century hermit), where the tomb of s. Malo or Maclou was located. Aleth was completely destroyed by King s. Luigi in 1236. At the end of the 13th century, however, its revival began with a parish dedicated to s. Servano, whence the name of the new city, which became a separate municipality in 1780. A wooden statue of Notre-Dame-de-la-Croix-du-Fief is venerated there. Opposite the northern transept is the chapel of St. Aaron, on the site where the anchorite is said to have lived and been buried. The Bishop of Aleth, Giovanni di Châtillon, built the Cathedral dedicated to s. Vincenzo, which today has a 16th-century façade, with a central tower from the 15th century, damaged in 1944. The interior still preserves the original central nave, with square pillars and Romanesque capitals, together with the Gothic side aisles flanked by chapels from the 15th and 16th centuries. Among the bishops are the b. Giovanni de la Grille (1144-63), Guglielmo di Montfort (1423-32), cardinal from 1426, Guglielmo Briconnet (1493-1513), and Harlay de Sancy (1632-46).