SAINT-MAURICE D'AGAUNE. - An abbey "nullius" in the Canton of Valais in Switzerland, immediately subject to the Holy See.
It has an area of about 97 sq km with a population of 4,250 inhabitants, of whom 3,700 are Catholics; all the clergy are regular. The vicar general is generally the prior of the Abbey, and the canons, by a brief of Gregory XVI (Aug. 4, 1840), have the privileges of the canons of cathedral churches.
The territory of S.-M. consists of the abbey and its college; of the Shrine of Notre-Dame du Scex (7th century), formerly the hermitage of St. Amatus, abbot founder of Remiremont; of the mother house of the Sisters of S.-M. at Vérolliez with a 12th-century chapel, of the orphanage and the home for the aged; of the parishes of Choëx,
Vernayaz, Salvan and Finhaut in the Canton of Valais, and of Lavey-Morcles in the Canton of Vaud. All the parishes are grouped into a single deanery. To the abbey are further united "pleno iure" 5 other parishes of the diocese of Sion, which, however, are not part of the nullius territory, within whose bounds there exist 4 female religious communities.
The abbey of St-M. d'A. (v. AGAUNO) was founded in 515 by Sigismund of Burgundy on the tomb of St. Maurice and his companion martyrs (v. MAURIZIO, ISUPERIO...); it was lavished with pontifical privileges (MGH, Legum, sect. V: Formul., I, pp. 39-41; ibid., Diplom. Imper., I, pp. 16-17) on account of the "laus perennis" (v.). Moreover, the presence of a 6th-century baptistery demonstrates the eminent position of the abbey 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 was thus able to exercise a spiritual and temporal supremacy in the region.
The religious became secular canons in the 9th century and regulars in 1128 (v. CANONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, III. Congregations still existing, no. 4). The abbot of S.-M. and his Chapter exercised an exclusive spiritual jurisdiction over several parishes, but since the territorial extent of the abbey was not well defined, the bishops of Sion claimed from the 17th century onward diocesan jurisdiction over the parishes dependent on the abbey; but from that time the nullius character of a part of the abbey territory came to be established. The territorial question, which became increasingly defined from the pontificate of Benedict XIV onward, received a definitive solution under Pius XI, who, by the apostolic constitution Pastoralis cura of Oct. 11, 1933, precisely constituted the nullius territory (AAS, 26 [1934], pp. 50-51). By the apostolic constitution In amplissimo of July 3, 1840, Gregory XVI forever united the episcopal title of Bethlehem to that of the abbey of S.-M. (Acta Gregorii PP. XVI, Rome 1902, pp. 69-70).
The abbey church is a cathedral; recently restored (1947-49), it was raised by Pope Pius XII to the dignity of minor basilica by the brief Quamquam pridem of Nov. 30, 1948 (AAS, 41 [1949], p. 352). The Abbey's highly valuable Treasury has now been arranged in a new location in accordance with the best standards.
Bibliography
Leo Müller