SAINT-BRIEUC, DIOCESE OF. - A city and diocese in the department of Côtes-du-Nord in France.
The diocese has the same boundaries as the civil department, covering an area of approximately 7,000 sq. km. and a population of 500,800 inhabitants, of whom 500,000 are Catholic. The diocese is divided into two archdeaconries, of St-B. and of Tréguier, and comprises 6 deaneries subdivided into 48 districts and 412 parishes, served by 956 diocesan priests and 50 regular clergy; it has a major and minor seminary, 16 male religious communities and 330 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 345).
According to tradition, St. Brieuc, a monk from Wales, is said to have come to the region of St-B. from the area of Cardigan in Gaul, together with about 80 companions, to evangelize Armorica. He first founded the monastery of Tréguier on the river Jandy, entrusting its direction to his nephew Pabu Tugdual; then he went to the right bank of the Gouet and, at a place called Champ-de-Rouvre, built a basilica around which a monastery and later a city grew, taking his name. Only an inscription placed at St-Serge-d'Angers, where his body is said to have been translated around 851-57, gives St. Brieuc the title of bishop; the first bishop whose name is known before the 10th century is Felix or Garnobius.
The city was decimated by the plague in 1240 and in 1601. From 1602 to 1768 it was the seat of the assemblies of the States of Brittany. It suffered greatly during the French Revolution. The diocese is a suffragan of Rennes and has as its patrons St. Brieuc and St. William. The bishop also holds the title of Tréguier.
The cathedral, dedicated to St. Stephen, was rebuilt in 1220 by Bishop William Pinchon, who died in 1234 and was canonized in 1247 by Pope Innocent IV. The building was restored in the 14th century and modified in the 18th and at the end of the 19th. The façade with its portico is flanked by two towers; the interior measures 73 x 41 m in width and 19 m in height; the transept and choir still date from the 15th century. St. William Pinchon is buried in a modern granite sarcophagus and is represented in a 15th-century statue; there are also the tomb monuments of the bishops of St-B.: Msgr. Boisgélin (d. 1633); Msgr. Caffarelli (d. 1815); Msgr. Le Gonidec de la Romagère (d. 1841); Msgr. Le Mée (d. 1858); Msgr. Martial (d. 1862); Msgr. Davesne (d. 1882). Modern are the basilica of Notre-Dame-d'Espérance, much venerated in the region and a place of pilgrimage every year on May 31; the church of St. Michael is from the 19th century, with a façade flanked by two corner towers.
The fountain of St-B., so called because he built it, was rebuilt in 1429; it is attached to the small oratory of Notre-Dame-de-la-Fontaine and to the chapel containing the tombs of the last two bishops of St-B.
Tréguier. - It began as a monastery of the confraternity of the Jandy with the Guindy, founded by St. Brieuc and entrusted to Tugdual, whose biography dates from the 9th century. Bishop Gorenzan is said to have been driven out of Tréguier by the Normans in the 10th century; he is said to have translated the relics of St. Tugdual to Château-Landon and to Chartres.