Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rennes

Rennes Cathedral

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rennes (Lat:Archdiocesis Rhedonensis) is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in France. The diocese is coextensive with the department of Ille et Vilaine. The Archdiocese has 8 suffragans: Diocese of Angers, Diocese of Laval, Diocese of Le Mans, Diocese of Luçon, Diocese of Nantes, Diocese of Quimper, and the Diocese of Saint-Brieuc.

In the Middle Ages the Bishop of Rennes had the privilege of crowning the dukes of Brittany in his cathedral. On the occasion of his first entry into Rennes it was customary for him to be borne on the shoulders of four Breton barons.

The Concordat of 1802 re-established the Diocese of Rennes which since then has included: the ancient Diocese of Rennes with the exception of three parishes given to the diocese of Nantes; the greater part of the ancient Diocese of Dol; the greater part of the ancient Diocese of St. Malo; ten parishes that had formed part of the ancient Diocese of Vannes and Nantes.

On 3 January 1859, the See of Rennes, which the French Revolution had desired to make a metropolitan, became an archiepiscopal see, with the Diocese of Quimper, Diocese of Vannes, and Diocese of St. Brieuc as suffragans. Cardinal Place obtained from Pope Leo XIII permission for the Archbishop of Rennes to add the titles of Dol and St. Malo to that of Rennes.

History

Tradition names as first apostles of the future Diocese of Rennes, missionaries of the Latin race, but of an uncertain date: Saint Maximinus, Saint Clarus, Saint Justus. On the other hand, when in the fifth and sixth centuries bands of Christian Britons emigrated from Great Britain to Armorica and formed on its northern coast the small Kingdom of Domnonée, the Gospel was preached for the first time in the future Diocese of Dol and Diocese of Aleth. Among these missionaries were St. Armel, who, according to the legend, founded in the sixth century the town of Ploermel in the Diocese of Vannes and then retired into the forests of Chateaugiron and Janzé and attacked Druidism on the very site of the Dolmen of the Fairy Rocks (La Roche aux Fées); St. Méen (Mevennus) who retired to the solitudes around Pontrecoët and founded the monastery of Gael (550), known afterwards as St. Méen's; St. Lunarius and St. Suliacus who dwelt in the woods along the banks of the Rance, and St. Samson and St. Malo.

The earliest historical mention of the See of Rennes dates from 453. One of the four prelates, Sarmatio, Chariato, Rumoridus, and Viventius, who in that year took part in the Council of Angers, was Bishop of Rennes. Athenius, Bishop of Rennes, took part in the Council of Tours in 461. Louis Duchesne is of opinion that the St. Amandus reckoned among the bishops of Rennes at the end of the fifth century is the same as St. Amand of Rodez.

Among other bishops are the famous St. Melanius (Melaine) who in 511 assisted at the Council of Orléans and had a widespread reputation for sanctity. He gave his name to a well-known abbey, which in the twelfth century possessed no less than seventy parish churches.

Famous among the annals of Rennes are: St. Desiderius (Didier) whose episcopate is questioned by Duchesne (c. 682); St. Moderamnus (Moran) who died about 730 in the monastery of Berceto near Lucca; Marbodus, the hymnographer (1035–1123); the Dominican Yves Mayeuc (1507–41); Arnaud d'Ossat (1596–1600), cardinal in 1599, and prominent in the conversion of Henry IV of France; Godefroy Brossais Saint Marc (1848–78), cardinal in 1875; Charles Place (1878–93), cardinal in 1886; Guillaume Labouré (1893–1906), cardinal in 1897.

Le Coz (1760–1815) during the Revolution was constitutional Archbishop of Rennes. Under the Concordat he became Archbishop of Besançon.

Ordinaries (incomplete)

• Guillaume Poulart (or Gibon) † (Jun 1357 Appointed - Feb 1359 Appointed, Bishop of Saint-Malo)
• Jacques d'Espinay-Durestal † (4 Mar 1450 Appointed - Oct 1481 Resigned)
• Bernardin Bochetel (Bouchelet) 1558 - 1566
• Arnaud d'Ossat † (9 Sep 1596 Appointed - 26 Jun 1600 Appointed, Bishop of Bayeux)
• Jean-Baptiste de Beaumanoir de Lavardin † (20 Feb 1678 Ordained Bishop - 23 May 1711 Died)
• Christophe-Louis Turpin de Crissé de Sanzay † (15 Aug 1711 Appointed - 27 Sep 1724 Appointed, Bishop of Nantes)
• Charles-Louis-Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil † (17 Oct 1723 Appointed - 24 Apr 1732 Died)
• Louis-Guy de Guérapin de Vauréal † ( 1732 Appointed - 1758 Resigned)
• Jean-Antoine de Toucheboeuf de Beaumont des Junies † ( 1758 Appointed - 1761 Resigned)
• Henri-Louis-René Des Nos † (16 Aug 1761 Ordained Bishop - 25 Dec 1769 Appointed, Bishop of Verdun)
• François Bareau de Girac † ( 1769 Appointed - 1801 Resigned)
• Jean-Baptiste-Marie de Maillé de la Tour-Landry † (9 Apr 1802 Appointed - 25 Nov 1804 Died)
• Etienne-Célestin Enoch † (30 Jan 1805 Appointed - 12 Nov 1819 Retired)
• Charles Mannay † (27 Nov 1819 Appointed - 5 Dec 1824 Died)
• Claude-Louis de Lesquen † (12 Jan 1825 Appointed - 21 Jan 1841 Resigned)
• Geoffroy Brossais Saint-Marc † (25 Feb 1841 Appointed - 26 Feb 1878 Died)
• Charles-Philippe Place † (13 Jun 1878 Appointed - 5 Mar 1893 Died)
• Jean-Natalis-François Gonindard † (5 Mar 1893 Succeeded - 17 May 1893 Died)
• Guillaume-Marie-Joseph Labouré † (13 Jun 1893 Appointed - 21 Apr 1906 Died)
• Auguste-René-Marie Dubourg † (7 Aug 1906 Appointed - 22 Sep 1921 Died)
• Alexis-Armand Charost † (22 Sep 1921 Succeeded - 7 Nov 1930 Died)
• René-Pierre Mignen † (21 Jul 1931 Appointed - 1 Nov 1939 Died)
• Clément-Emile Roques † (11 May 1940 Appointed - 4 Sep 1964 Died)
• Paul Joseph Marie Gouyon † (4 Sep 1964 Succeeded - 15 Oct 1985 Retired)
• Jacques André Marie Jullien (15 Oct 1985 Succeeded - 1 Sep 1998 Resigned)
• François de Sales Marie Adrien Saint-Macary † (1 Sep 1998 Succeeded - 26 Mar 2007 Died)
• Pierre d'Ornellas (26 Mar 2007 Succeeded - present)

External links

• Source

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.