Passage added in some manuscripts of the Passion of the Agaunensian Martyrs, describing miracles at the shrine dedicated to the *Theban Legion at Agaune (eastern Gaul) and the perpetual psalm-singing instituted there by *Sigismund (king of the Burgundians, ob. 523, S00380), who is described as a saint and martyr. Written in Latin, at Agaunum (eastern Gaul), probably in the later 6th or 7th century.
E07794
Literary - Hagiographical - Accounts of martyrdom
Literary - Other
Passion of the Agaunensian Martyrs (BHL 5737), interpolated passage
... vel in restauratione claudorum aut sanitate febrium ceterisque infirmitatibus cotidie hic per servos suos virtus Domini operatur, quae multa narranda sunt, si per singula scribantur. Tamen fidelium cordibus absque lectione cognita esse noscuntur, quae quanta et qualia miracula hic per sanctos suos ad honorem et gloriam nominis sui Dominus operare non desinit. Pro id ipsum die noctuque psalmorum hymni decantatio non desistit, quae, iubente sancto et praeclaro Christi martyre beato Sigimundo rege, est institutum hac usque hodie, Deo protegente, est conservatum. Propterea hic laudes Dei servi canentes ore persolvunt, cui est honor et gloria, imperium et potestas per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen
'... whether through the restoration of the lame, or the healing of those with fevers and other infirmities every day here through his servants, the power of the Lord is at work, about which many things are to be told if they were written individually. But it is known in the hearts of the faithful, without reading, how great and of what kinds are the miracles which the Lord does not cease to carry out here through his saints to the honour and glory of his name. For which, day and night, the singing of the hymn of the psalms does not cease, which was established by order of the holy and glorious martyr of Christ the blessed King Sigismund, and through God's protection maintained down to the present day. Hence, the servants [of God] singing here send out with their mouths the praises of God, to whom is honour and glory, command and power over all things for ever and ever. Amen.'
Text: Krusch 1896.
Translation: David Lambert.
Service for the saint
Chant and religious singing
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
MiraclesMiracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesMonarchs and their family
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Source
This passage was added to the Passion of the Agaunensian Martyrs (E06108) at a relatively early point in the transmission of the text, inserted into the final sentence of the text of the Passion proper (before the letter from Eucherius to Salvius). It was edited by Krusch in an appendix to his edition of the Passion.The passage does not contain anything that allows it to be dated precisely. The fact that it describes King Sigismund so unreservedly as 'a holy and glorious martyr of Christ' suggests that it was written at least a generation after his death in 523, when the more questionable aspects of his life (see e.g. E07789) had been forgotten.
Discussion
This passage was clearly written at a time when the cult of Sigismund (PLRE II, 'Sigismundus'; Pietri and Heijmans 2013, 'Sigismundus') was well-established at Agaune as a supplement to its original role as the shrine of the Theban Legion, and when the perpetual psalm-singing instituted by Sigismund when he refounded the monastic community in 515 was one of its main claims to fame. The author seems to have wished an acknowledgement of this to be included in the text of the Passion of the Agaunensian Martyrs, which had been written long before Sigismund's time, during the episcopate of Eucherius of Lyon (430s-c. 452).Bibliography
Edition:Krusch, B., Passiones vitaeque sanctorum aevi Merovingici et antiquiorum aliquot (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 3; Hannover, 1896), 40.
Further reading:
Pietri, L., and Heijmans, M., Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire, 4 Prosopographie de la Gaule chrétienne (314-614) (Paris, 2013).
Rosenwein, B.H., "Perpetual Prayer at Agaune," in: S. Farmer and B.H. Rosenwein (eds.), Monks and Nuns, Saints and Outcasts: Religion in Medieval Society. Essays in Honor of Lester K. Little (Ithaca, 2000), 37-56.
David Lambert
13/11/2023
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00339 | Theban Legion, commanded by Maurice, martyrs of Agaune, Gaul | Certain | S00380 | Sigismund, king and martyr of the Burgundians, ob. 523 | Sigimundus | Certain |
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