SAINT-MAURICE D'AGAUNE. — An abbazia *nullius* in the Canton of Valais in Switzerland, immediately subject to the Holy See.
It has an area of approximately 97 km² with a population of 4,250 inhabitants, of whom 3,700 are Catholic; all the clergy are regular. The vicar general is generally the prior of the abbey, and the canons, by a brief of Gregory XVI (4 Aug. 1840), enjoy the privileges of the canons of cathedral churches.
The territory of Saint-Maurice consists of the abbey and its college; the sanctuary of Notre-Dame du Sex (7th century), formerly the hermitage of St Amatus, abbot-founder of Remiremont; the motherhouse of the Sisters of Saint-Maurice at Verolliez with a 12th-century chapel, the orphanage, and the old people’s home; and the parishes of Choëx, Saint-Flour (diocese of Saint-Flour), Vernayaz, Salvan, and Finhaut in the Canton of Valais, and Lavey-Morcles in the Canton of Vaud. All the parishes are grouped into a single deanery. To the abbey are also united *pleno iure* five other parishes of the diocese of Sion, though these do not form part of the *nullius* territory, within which there are four female religious communities.
The abbey of Saint-Maurice d’Agaune (q.V. AGAUNO) was founded in 515 by Sigismund of Burgundy on the tomb of St Maurice and his companions (q.V. MAURO, ESUPERIO...). It was enriched with papal privileges (MGH, Legum, sect. V: *Formul.*, I, pp. 39–41; ibid., *Diplom. Imper.*, I, pp. 16–17) on account of the *laus perennis* (q.v.). Moreover, the presence of a 6th-century baptistery attests to the abbey’s pre-eminent role in the propagation of the faith (cf. L. Blondel, *Le baptistère et les anciens bâtiments conventuels*, in *Vallesia*, 1949). It also received privileges and donations from Rudolph III of Burgundy and thus exercised both spiritual and temporal supremacy in the region.
The monks became secular canons in the 9th century and regular canons in 1128 (q.V. S. AGOSTINO, III. Congregations still in existence, no. 4). The abbot of Saint-Maurice and his chapter exercised exclusive spiritual jurisdiction over several parishes, but since the territorial extent of the abbey was not clearly defined, the bishops of Sion claimed diocesan jurisdiction over the parishes dependent on the abbey from the 17th century onward. However, from early times the *nullius* character of part of the abbatial territory was established. The territorial question, which was clarified during the pontificate of Benedict XIV, received its definitive solution under Pius XI, who, with the apostolic constitution *Pastoralis cura* of 11 Oct. 1933, precisely defined the *nullius* territory (AAS, 26 [1934], pp. 50–51). By the apostolic constitution *In amplissimo* of 3 July 1840, Gregory XVI permanently united the episcopal title of Bethlehem to that of the abbey of Saint-Maurice (Acta Gregorii PP. XVI, Rome 1902, pp. 69–70).
The abbatial and cathedral church, recently restored (1947–49), was raised by Pope Pius XII to the dignity of a minor basilica by the brief *Quandoquidem* of 30 Nov. 1948 (AAS, 41 [1949], p. 352). The Abbey’s most precious Treasure has now been arranged in a new setting with due care.