Saint Sigismund, King of Burgundy

Sigismund, before being raised to the throne, was named, like his father, patrician of the empire in the Gauls. The Burgundian princes held themselves very honored by this dignity, which was conferred upon them by the emperors of the East, of whom they boasted of being the representatives. Sigismund had married, as early as the year 493 or 494, Ostrogotha, daughter of Theodoric, king of Italy. His father, in having him contract this union, had wished to secure in Theodoric a powerful ally against the enterprises of Clovis, king of the Franks, whose proximity worried him. In 513, Gundobad associated his son wi Genève Theoretical seat of his diocese, then in the hands of the Protestants. th the throne, and had him crowned in Geneva. From that day, Sigismund had to govern specifically this

The Burgundians first established themselves along the Vistula, in Prussia. In 407, they crossed the Rhine, and entered the Gauls. In 419, Gundahar, their first king, conquered the country situated between the Upper Rhine, the Rhône, and the Saône. Shortly after, he extended his dominion; and the State that he formed included what was later called the duchy of Burgundy, Franche-Comté, Provence, the Lyonnais, the Dauphiné, Savoy, etc. He reigned until 463, as seen by his letter to Pope Hilary, and by the response of this Pope, who calls him his son, etc.

Chilperic, his son and successor, was a zealous Catholic. After a reign of twenty-eight years, he was assassinated with his wife, his sons, and his brother Godomar, by Gundobad, his other brother, who had embraced Arianism. The latter died in 515, and left two sons, Sigismund and Godomar. He reformed the code of Burgundian laws, called by his name *lex Gambetta*. He brought to Geneva, where his court was, the two daughters of his brother Chilperic; Chrone, the eldest, took the veil; Clotilde, the youngest, married Clovis, king of the Franks. The latter declared war on Gundobad, to avenge the death of Chilperic; but he later made peace with him. Chlodomer, king of Orléans, and his brothers, attacked Saint Sigismund, who was taken prisoner and put to death in 524. Ten years later, the kings of France divided the kingdom of Burgundy among themselves. Guntram, son of Clotaire I, took the title of king of Burgundy, and reigned at Chalon-sur-Saône, although Sigebert, his brother, possessed a large part of this country. Childebert, son of Sigebert, and Theuderic II, son of Childebert, took the same title. It was extinguished in 613; but Charles, the last of the sons of the emperor Lothair, revived it with that of king of Provence, then of king of Arles. Upper Burgundy was called Franche-Comté, because it owed only military service.

We see the Burgundians as Christians and Catholics, shortly after they had crossed the Rhine and had established themselves in France. Sozomen places their conversion around the year 317. It is therefore not true that they fell into Arianism almost immediately after having embraced Christianity. According to Socrates, Nicephorus, Grose, etc., they were zealous Catholics until the end of the 5th century; they only persisted in Arianism during the reign of Gundobad, who was the third of their kings. (See Mille, *Abr. chron. de l'Hist. cycl., ecclés. et littér. de Bourg.*, year 1771.)

part of the States of Burgundy, which included western Helvetia and Sequania, with Geneva as its capital.

Sigismund, raised to royal dignity and enlightened by the light of faith, applied himself to repairing through his good works the harm he had done to religion through his errors. It was with this view that he began, as early as the year 515, to rebuild and e nlarge the famous monastère d'Agaune Monastery in Valais where Amatus was educated and became a monk. monastery of Agaune. This monastery had been founded, at an earlier time, by the religious of Condat. But it had since fallen into decay, and, at that moment, priests and laypeople lived there in confusion. Then, a chronicler of the time tells us, Saint Maximus, Bishop of Geneva, exhorted King Sigismund to restore honor to this place, sanctified formerly by the martyrdom of the Theban Legion, and to remove from it that crowd of people of every sex and condition who had established their dwelling there. It was just that a place illustrated by the courage of generous athletes of the faith should be inhabited only by men consecrated to prayer, and whose vows would call down upon the prince the blessings of heaven. The king therefore assembled a council on this subject. It was decided that all women and seculars established at Agaune would be excluded, and that a community of monks occupied with celebrating the praises of God night and day would be established there.

Thanks to the munificence of the prince, the monastery and the church were rebuilt in vast proportions. Saint Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, Saint Maximus of Geneva, and Saint Viventiolus of Lyon were keen to revive monastic life in these places and were the main drivers of this enterprise. In the meantime, King Gundobad died (516), and Sigismund, raised to his father's throne, broke the shackles that still weighed on the Churches of Gaul and returned to the bishops all the freedom they needed to assemble councils and accomplish great works. The buildings of the monastery of Agaune being finished, the king convened there, on May 1, 516, an assembly of bishops and lords. The old rule was replaced by a new constitution, according to which the religious would be exempt from manual labor and required to sing in the choir without interruption, near the venerated relics of the Theban martyrs. This is what was called the laus pere nnis or perpe laus perennis Perpetual praise organized by Columbanus at Luxeuil. tual psalmody.

To fulfill this office, the number of religious had to be considerable. They were brought from Lérins, Grigny, Île-Barbe, and Condat, and Saint Hymnemodus was given to them as abbot. Sigismund provided for their subsistence with truly royal liberality. He had an authentic act drawn up of the donations he made to the monks of Agaune.

The year following this donation (517), twenty-four bishops, who belonged to the eight ecclesiastical provinces of Burgundy, met on September 6 in a national council at Epaone to agree on the reforms to be introduced in the Churches of Gaul. It was after this council that the dedication of the basilica of Agaune took place, on September 22, the day of the feast of the Theban martyrs, and Saint Avitus delivered a speech on this occasion, of which only the title remains to us.

Sigismund governed his people with justice, and everything seemed to herald the prosperity of his reign, when a tragic event cast shame and misfortune upon him. Here we let Gregory of Tours speak: "Sigismund," he says, "having lost his first wife, Ostrogotha, daughter of Theodoric, king of Italy, by whom he had a son named Sigeric, married a secon d. But Sigéric Son of Sigismund, victim of a parricide ordered by his father. she, according to the custom of stepmothers, began to mistreat her husband's son and to stir up quarrels with him. Now, one feast day, the young man, recognizing on her the clothes of his mother, said to her, his heart full of wrath: 'You were not worthy to wear on your shoulders these clothes, which are known to have belonged to your mistress, that is to say, to my mother.' Transported with fury, she then incited Sigismund with insidious words: 'This perverse son,' she said, 'aspires to seize your kingdom, and proposes, after having caused your death, to extend his states as far as Italy, by making himself master of the kingdom that his grandfather Theodoric possessed in that country. He knows well that as long as you live, he cannot accomplish his design, and that he will only rise through your ruin.' Sigismund, excited by these perfidious accusations and giving way to the advice of his wicked wife, became a cruel parricide. One day, in the afternoon, as his son was heavy with wine, he ordered him to go to sleep, and, during his sleep, a handkerchief tied under the chin was passed around his neck; then two servants, each pulling one end of this handkerchief, strangled him (522). As soon as this was done, the father, repenting, but too late, threw himself upon the corpse of his son, and began to weep bitterly. It is reported that an old man then said to him: 'It is for yourself that you must weep now, you who, following perfidious advice, have become a cruel parricide; he whom you have caused to perish innocent does not need to be wept for.' However, the king went to the monastery of Saint-Maurice, and spent a great number of days there in tears and fasting to implore his pardon.

Sigismund's crime was undoubtedly great. But what seems to diminish its horror is that this prince, convinced that his son was guilty, believed himself obliged to place reasons of state above the sentiments of nature. Moreover, the remorse by which he was torn, the tears he shed, and the penance to which he condemned himself, obtained grace for him before heaven. For if God punished his crime with the revolt of his subjects, He glorified his repentance by illustrating his tomb with miracles, and religion later honored him with the title of saint, just as it had honored the penitent David and the repentant Magdalene.

Sigismund humbled himself at Agaune, under ashes and haircloth, beseeching heaven to take vengeance in this world for the evil he had done, and not to reserve the punishment for after this life. God heard the penitent king and sent him disgraces to save him eternally. The Frankish princes, less touched by his repentance than struck by his parricide, believed the occasion favorable to seize his States. They hoped that the nobles of the kingdom of Burgundy, irritated against their king, would not take up his defense, and that Theodoric, seized with horror upon learning of the death of his grandson, would abandon Sigismund to the vengeance of the princes and to the justice of God. Queen Clotilde herself incited her children to avenge against the Burgundians the death of her father Chilperic, whom Gundobad had put to death. Sigismund, awakened by these rumors of war, left his retreat and came to Lyon. To interest in his cause the most powerful of the sons of Clovis, Theuderic, king of Austrasia, he had given him his daughter Suavegothe in marriage. Consequently, Theuderic remained neutral in this war. But the sons of Clotilde, Clodomir, Chlothar, and Childebert, were already in the field with a powerful army. They offered battle to Sigismund and his brother Godomar. These two princes, too weak to withstand the attack of the Franks, were immediately put to rout. Godomar managed to escape. But Sigismund, having tried to flee toward Agaune to seek asylum there, was pursued by his own subjects, who joined the Franks. Discovered in a place named Versallis, where he had donned a monk's habit, he was taken and delivered to Clodomir, who had this unfortunate king taken to Orléans, with his wife and his two young sons (523).

However, most of the Burgundian soldiers had remained faithful to the cause of their prince. Godomar rallied them and wanted to try his fortune once more at the head of this army. He attacked the Franks, pushed them back onto their lands, retook their conquest, and had himself proclaimed king of Burgundy. But this victory was as short-lived as it had been rapid. "Clodomir," says Gregory of Tour Clodomir King of Orléans, son of Clovis, warned by Saint Avitus. s, "preparing to march again against the Burgundians, resolved to put Sigismund to death. The blessed Avitus, abbot of Saint-Mesmin de Micy, about two leagues from Orléans, a famous priest at that time, said to him on this occasion: — If, turning your gaze toward God, you change your design, and if you do not suffer these people to be killed, God will be with you, and you will obtain victory; but if you have them put to death, you yourself will be delivered into the hands of your enemies; and you will suffer their fate: it will happen to you, to your wife, and to your sons what you will have done to Sigismund, to his wife, and to his children. But Clodomir, despising this advice, replied to Avitus: — It would be great folly to leave an enemy behind me when I march against another: for one would attack me from behind, and the other from the front, and I would find myself caught between two armies. The victory will be surer and easier if I separate them from one another. The first once dead, it will be easy also to get rid of the second." He therefore delivered Sigismund to the sword, with his wife and his two sons, and had them th rown into Coulmiers Place where Sigismund and his family were thrown into a well. a well, near Coulmiers, a village in the territory of Orléans (524).

Such was the tragic end of this prince, whose death was soon followed by the definitive ruin of his kingdom. Indeed, Clodomir, after the murder of Sigismund, headed against the Burgundians, whom he attacked near the village of Vézeronce, between Vienne and Belley. He was killed in the melee. But this misfortune, far from breaking the Franks, exasperated their courage, and, according to Gregory of Tours, they put Godomar to flight, crushed the Burgundians, and subjected the whole country to their power.

## CULT AND RELICS OF SAINT SIGISMOND.

Sigismond's violent death seemed a sufficient expiation for his faults, and the peoples whose fall he had caused thought only of the penance he had made for it. Perhaps, says a historian, if his entire reign had been without stain, he would have served the Lord neither with enough humility nor with enough fear. He was given, according to the custom of that time, the title of Martyr, which was attributed to saints immolated for any cause whatsoever. His body, and those of his wife and children, remained for three years in the well of Coulmiers, and during this time, his Acts say, a lamp was often seen miraculously lit there. The people flocked to this place to venerate the holy king; and it pleased God to perform miracles there through the intercession of Saint Sigismond. A chapel was subsequently built there, and the houses that gradually rose around this sanctuary formed a village which, from the time of Charles the Bald, was called the Well of Saint Sigismond, or simply Saint-Sigismond. A priory of the Order of Saint Benedict was also built there, the collation of which belonged to the abbot of Saint-Mesmin.

But it is above all at Agaune that the cult of Saint Sigismond was held in honor. Ambrose, abbot of this monastery, with the help of Ansemonde, a Burgundian lord who had always been faithful to the king, obtained from King Theuderic permission to remove his body from the well of Coulmiers. He had it transported to Agaune, where it was honorably buried in the church of Saint John the Evangelist. It is there that the faithful came to implore the protection of the penitent king, and the graces obtained there, wrote Gregory of Tours, are proof that he is numbered among the Saints. A special mass was celebrated in his honor there, and he was particularly invoked to be delivered from the ravages of fever. The cult of Saint Sigismond is very widespread in Savoy, which had been part of his kingdom of Burgundy. Saint-Sigismond-sur-Aime, Saint-Sigismond, near Albertville (diocese of Tarentaise), Saint-Sigismond near Aix-les-Bains (Chambéry), Saint-Sigismond, near Cluses (Annecy), are considered to be contemporary with the Burgundian era; a fairly large quantity of Roman antiquities is found there.

Some relics of Saint Sigismond were successively transported to Our Lady of the Hermits, in Switzerland, and to Prague, in Bohe mia, w Prague Capital of Bohemia and final burial place. here his feast was celebrated on May 11, under the double rite of the second class. It was Emperor Charles IV who, in the year 1306, had the head of Saint Sigismond transported to Prague. At Agaune, they were kept in a silver shrine, with those of the holy king's sons, Giscalde and Gondeland. One of his relics is at the Carmel of Amicoa.

The name of Sigismond is inscribed in the oldest Martyrologies, and in particular in the Roman Martyrology. His feast, celebrated in a large number of churches in Bohemia, Germany, Italy (Cremona), Spain, Switzerland, etc., has also been celebrated for a long time in the diocese of Besançon, under the double rite (April 30). — The attributes of Saint Sigismond in the arts are a church that he carries in his hand, and the figure of a well. His manner of death explains this latter symbol, and the foundation of the abbey of Saint-Maurice, the former.

See the epitaph of the mother of Saint Sigismond, in Duchesne, vol. 1; consult also, on the various events relating to the life of Saint Sigismond: Greg. of Tours, De miraculis S. Juliani, c. 7 and 8; Hist. of the Franks, b. iii, c. 5; De gloria Martyr., b. iv, c. 75; Epitome, c. 34; the works of Saint Agobard, of Lyon, and of Saint Avitus, of Vienne; Fradcard, Hist. of Brines, b. ii; Dom Flansher, Hist. of Burgundy, passim; the Chronicle of Sigebert and the History of France by Aimoin; Ch. de Saussaye, Annals of the Church of Orléans; the Gallican Sacramentary, edited by Mabillon, which gives the proper Mass of Saint Sigismond; the Prague Missal of the 15th century, where one finds a beautiful prose in his honor; the Bollandists on September 22, and finally the Life of the Saints of Franche-Comté, Besançon, 1656.