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Agaunum was an outpost in Roman Switzerland, predecessor of the modern city of Saint-Maurice in the canton of Valais, southwestern Switzerland. It was used by the Roman Empire for the collection of the Quadragesima Galliarum. In Christian tradition, Agaunum is known as the place of martyrdom of the Theban Legion.
The Abbey of Saint Maurice, Agaunum (French: Abbaye de Saint-Maurice d'Agaune or Saint-Maurice-en-Valais) is a Swiss monastery of canons regular in Saint-Maurice, Canton of Valais, which dates from the 6th century.
The Theban Legion (also known as the Martyrs of Agaunum) figures in Christian hagiography as a Roman legion from Egypt —"six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men" — consisting of Christian soldiers who were martyred together in 286, according to the hagiographies of Maurice, the chief among the Legion's saints.
Saint Maurice (died c. 286, Agaunum, near Geneva; feast day September 22) was a Christian soldier whose alleged martyrdom, with his comrades, inspired a cult still practiced today. Among those martyred with him were SS. Vitalis, Candidus, and Exuperius.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
At Saint-Maurice, Switzerland, then called Agaunum, the orders were given to kill all in the Theban Legion. The Legion had refused to obey an order from the Emperor to kill local Christians. The other legions’ soldiers were given orders to “decimate” them by putting to death a tenth of its men.
Agaunum (today ST. MAURICE-EN-VALAIS) in the diocese of Sion, Switzerland, owes its fame to an event related by St. Eucherius, Bishop of Lyons, the martyrdom of a Roman legion, known as the “Theban Legion”, at the beginning of the fourth century.
Agaunum, in the diocese of Sion, Switzerland, owes its fame to an event related by St. Eucherius, Bishop of Lyons, the martyrdom of a Roman legion, known as the "Theban Legion", at the beginning of the fourth century.
