Abbey of Saint-Maurice d'Agaune

Coordinates: 46°13′10″N 7°00′12″E / 46.219358°N 7.003451°E / 46.219358; 7.003451
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Saint-Maurice d'Agaune
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Abbey of Saint Maurice
Abbaye de Saint-Maurice
Most Rev. Jean César Scarcella, C.R.A.
Architecture
Functional statusAbbey
Heritage designationCultural Property of National Significance
StyleRomanesque
Site
LocationSaint-Maurice, Valais, Switzerland
Coordinates46°13′10″N 7°00′12″E / 46.219358°N 7.003451°E / 46.219358; 7.003451
Public accessyes
Official nameAbbaye de St-Maurice d'Agaune
Reference no.7114

The Abbey of Saint Maurice, Agaunum (

psalmody
, and a collection of art and antiquity.

The abbey is a Swiss

heritage site of national significance.[2]

History

The abbey of St. Maurice is built on the ruins of a Roman shrine of the 1st century

Mercury in the Roman staging-post of Agaunum. According to Eucherius, Bishop of Lyon, around 370, Theodorus, Bishop of Valais, constructed a small shrine to commemorate the martyrdom of St. Maurice
and the Theban Legion, which was said to have occurred in the area where the abbey is located. Theodorus then gathered the local hermits in a common life, thus beginning the Community of Saint-Maurice.

In 515, the

Trinitarian
Christianity.

The abbey became known for a form of perpetual psalmody known as

canons. Amatus of Grenoble joined the abbey around 581, later retiring to a hermitage.[3]

The abbey had some of the richest and best preserved treasures in Western Europe, such as the Ewer of Saint-Maurice d'Agaune.

In the mid-9th century,

Conrad of Auxerre, who later became the commendatory abbot
of the abbey.

Rule of St. Augustine
, in place of the secular canons.

Throughout the history of the abbey, its strategic mountain pass location and independent patronage has subjected it to the whims of war. The abbey was often forced to pay ransom or house troops. In 1840,

See of Bethlehem in perpetuity on the abbey.[4]

Today the abbey consists of some 40 canons, with 2

Diocese of Sion. The canons also operate a highly ranked secondary school.[7]

Architecture

View of the cloister.

The abbey has been built and rebuilt over a period of at least 15 centuries. Excavations on the site have revealed a

baptistry dating to the 4th and 5th centuries, a series of four main Carolingian era churches built over one another dating from the 5th to the 11th century, and crypts
built between the 4th and 8th century.

The current church was first built in the 17th century while the tower dates to the 11th century. Preceding Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral in 946, Chartres Cathedral ca. 1020 and Rouen Cathedral ca. 1030, the abbey was an early example of an ambulatory plan with radiating chapels.[8] The Romanesque tower was reconstructed in 1945 to repair damage caused by a massive falling rock. The newly installed carillon is the largest built to date in Switzerland.[9]

School

The Lycée-collège de l'Abbaye de Saint-Maurice is a maturité gymnasiale, a gymnasium which offers the matura as the school-leaving qualification. The canons have educated students at the abbey since its foundation but the school in its modern form was opened in 1806. Notable alumni include controversial former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, former Presidents of Switzerland Alphons Egli and Pascal Couchepin and former chairman of the Swiss National Bank Jean-Pierre Roth.

See also

References

  1. ^ 1826 painting of the pass and bridge by Richard Parkes Bonington, (website accessed September 27, 2006).
  2. ^ "Kantonsliste A-Objekte". KGS Inventar (in German). Federal Office of Civil Protection. 2009. Archived from the original on 28 June 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  3. ^ Monks of Ramsgate. “Amatus”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 1 June 2012Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ^ Vailhé, Siméon (1907). "Bethlehem" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company..
  5. ^ "Mgr. Joseph Roduit". Conférence des Évêques suisses (in French). Archived from the original on 2014-10-24.
  6. ^ "Mgr. Jean Scarcella". Conférence des Évêques suisses (in French).>
  7. ^ "Actualités". Collège de l'Abbaye St-Maurice. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  8. ^ "Buildings". History of Art and Visual Culture. Archived from the original on 2001-06-09. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  9. ^ Friedrich, Andreas; Roten, François. "New Carillon for the Abbey of Saint-Maurice". World Carillon Foundation. Retrieved September 26, 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to St. Maurice's Abbey.
  • The Abbey of Saint-Maurice d'Agaune [1] (in English)
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