![St Clair (statue)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/St_Clair_%28statue%29.JPG)
According to late traditions, Saint Clair (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
: ''Clarus'') was the first
bishop of Nantes
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Nantes ( la, Dioecesis Nannetensis; french: Diocèse de Nantes; br, Eskopti Naoned) is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Nantes, France. The diocese consists of the department of Loire- ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
in the late 3rd century.
Traditional account
According to the traditional account, Clair was sent to Nantes by
Pope Linus
Pope Linus (, , ''Linos''; died c. AD 76) was the bishop of Rome from c. AD 67 to his death. As with all the early popes, he was canonized.
According to Irenaeus, Linus is the same person as the one mentioned in the New Testament. Linus is men ...
, the successor of
St. Peter, seventy years after the birth of Christ.
[Nice, Jason. ''Sacred History and National Identity''](_blank)
Routledge, 2015, He arrived from
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, with a
nail
Nail or Nails may refer to:
In biology
* Nail (anatomy), toughened protective protein-keratin (known as alpha-keratin, also found in hair) at the end of an animal digit, such as fingernail
* Nail (beak), a plate of hard horny tissue at the tip ...
in his possession from the cross that bore the
martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
dom of
St. Peter. Then he built an oratory dedicated to the Apostle, which would later become
Nantes Cathedral
Nantes Cathedral, or the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul of Nantes (french: Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Nantes), is a Roman Catholic Gothic cathedral located in Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France. Construction began in 1434, on t ...
. He died in Kerbellec,
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
Réguiny (
Morbihan
Morbihan ( , ; br, Mor-Bihan ) is a department in the administrative region of Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Morbihan (''small sea'' in Breton), the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastl ...
), and his tomb (emptied since the
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
invasions in late 9th century) lies in a chapel adjoining the church of Réguiny. A votive fountain is also located on the territory of the Breton town.
He is sometimes confused with the fifth century Saint Clair de Albi.
Critique
However, Breton historian
Arthur Le Moyne de La Borderie
Arthur Le Moyne de La Borderie, (5 October 1827, Vitré, Ille-et-Vilaine – 17 February 1901, Vitré) was a Breton historian, regarded as a father of Brittany's historiography.
Life
He came from ''La Borderie'', which was an estate in the commu ...
makes the following points:
* -that the ritual of the Church of Nantes, drawn up by precentor Helius in 1263, ignores the apostolic mission of St. Clarus;
* that St. Peter's nail in the cathedral of Nantes was not brought thither by St. Clarus, but at a time subsequent to the invasions of the Northmen in the tenth century;
* that St.
Felix of Nantes
Saint Felix of Nantes (514-584) was a 6th-century Bishop of Nantes, France. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Life
Felix was married, and in 551 at the age of 37, he was made Bishop of Nantes while his wife became a nun. He th ...
, writing with six other bishops in 567 to St. Radegond, attribute to
Martin of Vertou the chief rôle in the conversion of the Nantais to Christianity; and
* that the traditions concerning the mission of St. Clarus are later than 1400.
[De la Borderie, Arthur. ''Etudes hist. bretonnes. St. Clair et les origines de l'église de Nantes'' (Rennes, 1884)][
According to French historian ]Georges Goyau
Georges Goyau (31 May 1869 – 25 October 1939) was a French historian and essayist specializing in religious history.
Biography
Pierre-Louis-Théophile-Georges Goyau was born in Orléans 31 May 1869, and attended the Lycée d'Orléans before mov ...
the earliest list of the bishops of Nantes (made, according to historian Louis Duchesne, at the beginning of the tenth century) does not favour the thesis of a bishop of Nantes prior to Constantine. The dates regarding St. Clarus are uncertain.[Goyau, Georges. "Nantes (Nannetes)." The Catholic Encyclopedia]
Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 9 May 2018
Background
During the mid-seventeenth century, the Estates of Brittany were in frequent conflict with the court in Paris over what they considered infringements on Breton autonomy. In 1636, Dominican Albert Le Grand published ''Le vies des saints de la Bretagne Armorique''. While not necessarily a strong Breton patriot, the Estates saw things otherwise, as, to them, Le Grand's book reinforced the ancient prerogatives of Brittany. However, Le Grand drew a distinction between the seven dioceses founded by British Saints and the more eastern dioceses of Rennes and Nantes, founded by Gallo-Frankish saints.[
One year later, Pierre Biré published ''Concernant l'Origine, Antiquité, Noblesse, & Saincteté de la Bretagne Armorique, & particulerement de ville de Nantes & Renne''. In this, Biré said that St. Clair's mission as the first bishop of Nantes and all of Brittany preceded that of St. Denis to France; and it was from Nantes that St. Clair evangelized all of Brittany.][
]
Gallery
File:Cathédrale de Nantes - Saint Clair.jpg, Cathédrale de Nantes
File:Nantes Cathedral chapel of St. Clair.jpg, Nantes Cathedral chapel of St. Clair
File:Église Saint-Clair (Réguiny) 5996.JPG, Église Saint-Clair (Réguiny)
File:Église Saint-Clair (Réguiny) 5997.JPG, Église Saint-Clair (Réguiny)
File:Église Saint-Clair (Réguiny) 5993.JPG, Église Saint-Clair (Réguiny)
File:Église Saint-Clair (Réguiny) 5994.JPG, Église Saint-Clair (Réguiny)
File:Église Saint-Clair (Réguiny) 5970.JPG, Église Saint-Clair (Réguiny)
File:Église Saint-Clair (Réguiny) 5971.JPG, Église Saint-Clair (Réguiny)
File:Cathédrale de Nantes - Saint Clair.jpg, Église Saint-Clair (Réguiny)
File:Nantes - cathédrale (12).JPG, Cathédrale de Nantes
File:Nantes Cathedral chapel of St. Clair.jpg, chapel of St. Clair, Nantes Cathedral
References
{{Authority control
Bishops of Nantes
3rd-century bishops in Gaul
French beatified people
Beatifications by Pope Pius X