Tréguier is the native place of Ernest Renan (1823-92), and his quaint, timbered house may well be considered a literary shrine of the very first rank.
[Illustration: <u>_House of Ernest Renan, Tréguier_</u>]
Convents, where women may find a quiet refuge away from the world, are not so numerous as they once were in France. "Boarding-houses kept for unprotected women by nuns, with a supposed Christian devotion and a profound appreciation of ready money," was the way in which an English writer once spoke of them, and it was most unfair. Certainly, the writer of those lines never knew--and she professed to know France--the Convent of the Cross at Tréguier, where women can live in quiet seclusion, "all found," for a matter of seventy-five francs a month. To those interested, the above may be worth investigation.
Not far off is the Manor of Kermartin, where, in 1255, St. Yves, the patron saint of advocates, was born.
On the nineteenth of May a procession sets out from the Tréguier cathedral for this shrine, to render homage to the patron of the men of law. On the eve of the nineteenth all mendicants and vagabonds presenting themselves at the manor are fed and lodged, which makes the perpetuation of the ceremony one of real benefit to humanity, though its endurance is brief.
St. Yves is the only canonized Breton saint. He was born on the seventh of October, 1253, and accompanied Peter of Dreux, reigning duke, to the seventh crusade.
In the Breton tongue his praises are sung as follows:
"N'hen eus ket en Breiz, n'hen eus ket unan, N'hen eus ket eur Zant evel Sant Erwan."
"Il n'y a pas en Bretagne, il n'y en a pas un, Il n'y a pas un Saint comme St. Yves."
The last will and testament of St. Yves is preserved in the sacristy of the Church de Minihy, and also his breviary. His tomb is in the cemetery, surmounted by an arcade through which the faithful pass, crawling upon their knees when they seek his aid.
[Illustration: <u>_Shrine of St. Yves, Tréguier_</u>]
Not many travellers in France have ever even heard of Seven Isles, situated five kilometres or more off the coast near Tréguier. The corsairs of Jersey and Guernsey took refuge upon this little archipelago in the olden time, and long maintained a form of government quite of their own making, and even erected fortifications, of which that on the Île aux Moines has still some suggestion of strength.