Sigismund, King of the Burgundians, Saint, Martyr (SIGISMONDO, RE DEI BURGUNDI, SANTO, MARTIRE)

Also known as: St. Sigismund of Burgundy, Sigismund of Burgundy, Saint Sigismund; Spanish: San Sigismundo; French: Sigismond; Italian: San Sigismondo; Latin: Sigismundus

SIGISMUND, King of the Burgundians, Saint, Martyr. - He succeeded his father Gundobad in 516. Converted by St. Avitus, bishop of Vienne, he convened the Council of Epaone (Yenne, Savoy) in 517 to root out Arianism from his kingdom.

The glory brought him by the title of patrician, conferred on him by the "basileus," did not, however, compensate for his real weakness. He was in fact at fault for breaking off relations, because of a stupid crime, with Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, whose daughter he had married as his first wife: his second wife drove him to kill his firstborn son Sigeric, slanderously accused of conspiracy. Although S. repented and did penance in the monastery of St-Maurice-d'Agaune (Canton of Valais, Switzerland), which he had founded in 515, Theodoric's hatred did not abate. The latter allied himself with the sons of Clovis to conquer and divide the Burgundian Kingdom; and S., taken prisoner by Clodomir, was thrown in 523, together with his wife and children, into a well at St-Péravy-la-Colombe, near Orléans (Loiret). Popular compassion and piety made a martyr of him and spread his cult throughout Gaul. The Hieronymian Martyrology and also the Roman one commemorate him on May 1. His body is preserved in a splendid reliquary in the abbey of Agaune. - See plate XXXVII.

BIBL.: sources

essential source: S. Gregorio di Tours, Historia Francorum, ed. edited by R. Poupardin, Paris 1913; G. Kurth, Ste Clotilde, Paris 1905; Hefele-Leclercq, II, pp. 1031-42; P. Martin, Etudes critiques sur la Suisse à l'époque mérovingienne, Geneva-Paris 1910 (see index); Martyr. Hieronymianum, pp. 222, 224; Martyr. Romanum, pp. 166-67. Guglielmo Mollat

@incollection{ec11_sigismondo_re_dei_burgundi_san, author = {Mollat, Guglielmo}, title = {Sigismondo, re dei burgundi, santo, martire}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {563--564}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/sigismondo-re-dei-burgundi-santo-martire} }

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