AGAUNUM (Agaunum or Acaunum). - Present-day Saint-Maurice in Valais, a town of the Tarnade (Tarnaiae or Tarnades of the Roman itineraries), capital of the Nantuates, situated on the shortest route of communication between Italy and Germany, by way of the Great St. Bernard (Mons Jovis) and Aosta.
St. Eucherius (d. 449), author of the Passio sanctorum Mauricii ac sociorum eius martyrum (Acta SS. Septembris, VI, Paris 1867, p. 343) relates that St. Theodore, bishop of Octodurum (Martigny), in order to glorify the martyrs of the Theban legion Maurice (v.), Candidus, Exuperius and Victor, had erected over their tombs a chapel covered by a single-pitched roof resting against the rock; the excavations have confirmed this account. Toward the end of the 5th century we find there a hospice whose abbot was St. Severinus (BHL 7643-7646). To the same century belongs the small basilica with a polygonal apse adjoining the rock.
(from Valleson, III, 1948)
In 515, Sigismund, king of Burgundy, founded near this basilica a great monastery whose monks, at the initiative of St. Avitus, bishop of Vienne, began the rule of perpetual chant, the laus perennis (cf. M. Reymond, La charte de saint Sigismond pour Saint-Maurice d'Agaune 515, in Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Geschichte, 6 [1926], pp. 1-60). Of the first abbot, Innemodus, a fragment of the epitaph has been recovered. The successor Ambrose (516-20) built a new basilica with two slopes ("biciivis": Acta SS. Novembris, I, Paris 1887, pp. 553-54), devastated in 574 by the Lombards and rebuilt larger around 580. Around the year 762 the abbot Vultcherius or Villicarius began the works to build a grand basilica completed toward the end of the 8th century; it turned out to have two opposing polygonal apses and two annular crypts, with the straight side of the characteristic Roman type; the eastern crypt contained an arcosolium tomb, for relics, still preserved today.
The abbey of S. Maurizio, situated above one of the most frequented passages in the Middle Ages for descending into Italy, became a place of sojourn for the most illustrious religious and military personages, especially after the house of Savoy succeeded the kings of Burgundy. There remained, for example, for a few days Pope Stephen III in 753. Sacked around 940 by the Saracens, it was rebuilt by the abbot Burchard I in the first half of the 11th century; the basilica, set on fire, was restored and was consecrated in 1148 by Pope Eugene III. It suffered new fires in 1345 and in 1560; rebuilt in 1571, it collapsed because of the earthquake of 1611. It was rebuilt next to the ruins, but with a changed orientation. Damaged by falling rocks in 1942, especially in the bell tower, of the 11th century, it is in the process of reconstruction. Until the beginning of the 9th century, the monks provided for the service of the Sanctuary, later replaced by canons, as appears from a Bull of Eugene I (824-27), who in 1128 adopted the rule of St. Augustine. Often the abbot of Agauno was also bishop of Sion (v. CANONICI REGOLARI DI S. MAURIZIO DI AGAUNO).
The archaeological explorations begun in 1896 in the "Martolet" have brought to light not only the remains of the aforementioned basilicas, with their crypts, but also the ruins of a large Merovingian cemetery, many epigraphic fragments including the epitaph of St. Vultcherius, and two baptisteries: the first seems to be recognizable in a room near the basilica adjoining the rock; the second was rediscovered in Feb. 1948 at the center of a square building, near the present basilica.
Of great importance is the treasure possessed by the abbey; it is the most precious in all of Switzerland for the artistic relics it contains: gifts mostly from the distinguished personages who visited it. Mentioned are: a sardonyx vase called that of St. Martin, a jug of the 8th century, a product of Byzantine goldsmithing with oriental enamels, offered, as is said, by Charlemagne; a reliquary casket, a gift of the priest Teuderic (8th century); two large silver chests of Romanesque art, one for St. Maurice and the other for St. Sigismund; a rich cover of an evangeliary, a silver bust of St. Candidus, etc.
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Enrico Josi