Agaunum was an outpost in Roman Switzerland, predecessor of the modern city of Saint-Maurice in the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...

Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the 26 cantons forming the S ...

, southwestern Switzerland. It was used by the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Medite ...

for the collection of the ''

Quadragesima Galliarum ''Quadragesima Galliarum'' (lit. "Gallic one-fortieth"), also written ''XXXX Galliarum'' or ''XL Galliarum'', was a 2.5% tax charged on trade in the Roman Gaul, Gallic provinces of the Roman Empire. It was a customs-duty tax on all incoming and ou ...

''. In Christian tradition, Agaunum is known as the place of martyrdom of the

Theban Legion The Theban Legion (also known as the Martyrs of Agaunum) figures in Christian hagiography as a Roman legion from Egypt—"six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men"—who converted en masse to Christianity and were martyred together in 286, a ...

Etymology

The word ''Agaunum'' derives from

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerl ...

''acaunum'', meaning "saxum, stone, whetstone". The word ''acauna'' also appears in compound nouns relating to "stone", for instance, as related by Pliny. Ultimately, the word stems from the

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...

root ''*h₂ekmōn'', meaning "stone" in several of the daughter languages. The name is also attested as a deity called ''Acauno'' or ''Acaunus'', leading scholars to argue that in this location there was a probable cult to a river deity. The name ''Agaunum'' is probably at the origin of French toponym ''

Agonès Agonès (; oc, Agonés) is a commune in the Hérault department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Population See also *Communes of the Hérault department The following is a list of the 342 communes of the Hérault department of ...

'', a commune in southern France.Barruol, Guy. "Une dédicace inédite à Agonès (Hérault)". In: ''Revue archéologique de Narbonnaise'', tome 19, 1986. p. 369 (footnote nr. 1). OI: https://doi.org/10.3406/ran.1986.1302www.persee.fr/doc/ran_0557-7705_1986_num_19_1_1302

In later Christian tradition

Agaunum is noted for the fact that the monks at the monastery of Agaunum performed perpetual prayers since its formation in 522 by King Sigismund.''A Catholic Dictionary'' by William E. Addis, Thomas Arnold 2004 page 656 Near Agaunum, in a place still identifiable as a former temple to Mercury, god of travellers, recently excavated behind the abbey's present sanctuary, a revelation led to the discovery of martyrs' bones during the time of Theodore, Bishop of Octudurum (now Martigny), who was in office 350. The etiological narrative explaining the cache of human remains led to the

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal ...

of an entire Roman legion, the legendary

, martyred at the spot, when this entirely Christian legion refused to sacrifice to the Emperor

Maximian Maximian ( la, Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus; c. 250 – c. July 310), nicknamed ''Herculius'', was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was ''Caesar'' from 285 to 286, then '' Augustus'' from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his ...

and were put to death, by decimation, one out of ten at a time, until all were martyred. Their leader according to the legend was

Saint Maurice Saint Maurice (also Moritz, Morris, or Mauritius; ) was an Egyptian military leader who headed the legendary Theban Legion of Rome in the 3rd century, and is one of the favorite and most widely venerated saints of that martyred group. He is th ...

. The martyrology was written by

Eucherius, Bishop of Lyon Eucherius (c. 380c. 449) was a high-born and high-ranking ecclesiastic in the Christian church in Roman Gaul. He is remembered for his letters advocating extreme self-abnegation. From 439, he served as Archbishop of Lyon, and Henry Wace ranked h ...

, who died in 494. He wrote :''"We often hear, do we not, a particular locality or city is held in high honour because of one single martyr who died there, and quite rightly, because in each case the saint gave his precious soul to the most high God. How much more should this sacred place, Agaunum, be reverenced, where so many thousands of martyrs have been slain, with the sword, for the sake of Christ."'' Eucherius' telling of the legend reports that the shrine erected by Theodore was already in his time a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

that was the destination of pilgrims. It lay within the diocese of the Bishop of Sion. The actual site of the martyrdom (or of the cache of bones) was pointed out to pilgrims as the "true place" the ''vrai lieu'', a name it still carries, as Verroliez, according to local

etymology Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words ...

. In 515, the basilica became the center of a monastery built on land donated by Sigismund of Burgundy, the first king of the Burgundians to convert from

Arianism Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by G ...

to Trinitarian Christianity. His personal conversion was not pressed upon his Burgundian nobles. With the cooperation of the Catholic bishops, Sigismund set out to remake the existing hospice and community that already ministered to pilgrims around the shrine. The result was a unique development in its time: a monastery created ''ex nihilo'' under patronage, rather than one that developed organically around the person of a revered monk. Between 515 and 521, Sigismund lavishly endowed his royal foundation, and he transferred monks from other Burgundian monasteries, to ensure that a constant liturgy was kept. The liturgy, known as the '' laus perennis'' "perpetual praise" of relays of choirs, was an innovation for Western Europe, imported from

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth ( Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

; it was distinctive to the abbey of St. Maurice and the practice spread widely from there. St. Maurice's Abbey at Agaunum was the chief abbey of the Burgundian kingdom. In the 10th century, the

Saracens upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Pe ...

of Fraxinet established an outpost near the abbey to control the Alpine passes. In 961, the relics of Maurice and the martyrs were conveyed to the new cathedral being erected at

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label= Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Mag ...

by Emperor Otto I but the abbey has continued to flourish.

References

External links

Agaunum
''Catholic Encyclopedia'' * William B. Sweetser, Jr
"From Diocletian to Lenin and Beyond: The Continuing Witness of St. Maurice"

Official home page of Saint Maurice
* Photos
St. Maurice's AbbeyAbbey IconDecoration of Abbey Church

Etymology

In later Christian tradition

References

External links

Further reading