Ri () is a commune in the

Orne Orne (; or ) is a département in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne. It had a population of 279,942 in 2019.department in north-western

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. This commune has the shortest name of any department in the Orne.

Saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

John Eudes John Eudes, CIM (; 14 November 1601 – 19 August 1680) was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic priest and the founder of both the Order of Our Lady of Charity in 1641 and Congregation of Jesus and Mary, also known as the Eudists, in 16 ...

, the forerunner of the devotion to

Sacred Heart The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...

, was born here.

Geography

The commune of Ri is made up of the following collection of villages and hamlets, Ri and Houay. The commune is spread over an area of with a maximum altitude of and minimum of The commune is within the area known as the Plaine d'Argentan, which is known for its cereal growing fileds and horse stud farms. The source of the river Houay, a tributary of the

Orne Orne (; or ) is a département in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne. It had a population of 279,942 in 2019. Ri along with another 65 communes is part of a 20,593 hectare,

Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectiv ...

conservation area, called the Haute vallée de l'Orne et affluents.

Land distribution

The 2018

CORINE Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) is a European programme initiated in 1985 by the European Commission, aimed at gathering information relating to the environment on certain priority topics for the European Union (air, water ...

Land Cover assessment shows the vast majority of the land in the commune, 67% () is

Arable land Arable land (from the , "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the purposes of a ...

. The rest of the land is

Meadows A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable condition ...

at 16%, Heterogeneous agricultural land at 14% and the remaining 5% () is shrub and/or herbaceous vegetation.

Points of interest

In advance of the construction of the A88 autoroute a

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

Flint Mine was discovered in Ri. File:2021-01-08 Oratoire à Saint-Jean-Eudes, Ri.jpg, The oratory at Saint-Jean-Eudes, Ri

Notable people

, born in Ri, was a French

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

and the founder of both the Order of Our Lady of Charity in 1641 and Congregation of Jesus and Mary, also known as The Eudists, in 1643. *

François Eudes de Mézeray François Eudes de Mézeray (1610 – 10 July 1683) was a French historian. Mézeray was born at Ri, Orne, Ri near Argentan, France, Argentan, where his father was a surgeon. He had two brothers, one of whom, Jean-Eudes de Mézeray, Jean-Eudes ...

born in Ri, was a French Historian

References

Works cited

* Communes of Orne Prehistoric mines {{Argentan-geo-stub