Sigismund

ON SAINT SIGISMUND,

KING OF THE BURGUNDIANS.

A.D. 524

Sigismund Martyr, King of the Burgundians (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

[1] Caius Pliny in book 4 of the Natural History chapter 14 describing Germany, and assigning five kinds of its inhabitants, names as the first of them the Vindili, or, as others read, the Vandals; of whom, The seats of the ancient Burgundians, he says, part are the Burgundians, Varini, Carini, Guttones. The seat of these Burgundians is said to have been about greater Poland and the Archiepiscopal See of Gniezno. Their migration toward the Rhine St. Jerome indicates in the Chronicle in these words: In the year 9 of Valentinian, almost eighty thousand of the Burgundians, which never before, descended to the Rhine. They are mentioned also by Ammianus Marcellinus book 28 and Cassiodorus book 12 of the tripartite History. But according to the Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine, Lucius being Consul in the year 413, the Burgundians obtained the part of Gaul near the Rhine: and little by little occupied more provinces. their first Kings in a part of Gaul. Their King is called Gundicarius in the same Chronicle, on the Consulate of Theodosius XV and Valentinian IV which is the year of Christ 435. That Chilperic their King dwelt at Geneva about the year 463, we showed at the Life of St. Romanus Abbot of the Jura on February XXVIII, and of his Brother St. Lupicinus on March XXI. The brother of Chilperic is set as Gundericus, the father of Gundebadus and three brothers. The brothers being slain Gundebadus alone reigned, infected with the heresy of Arius and Photinus, and dead in it, leaving sons St. Sigismund, of whom we here treat, and Godemar the successor of Sigismund.

[2] We gave on February V the Life of St. Avitus Bishop of Vienne, and in § III indicated his familiar encounter with King Gundobad, and the labors expended on this man in bringing him to the orthodox faith. This Avitus what he could not accomplish in the father Gundobad, with the best success he performed in St. Sigismund the son: of these the first St. Sigismund embraced the Catholic faith, for by the witness of Agobard, in the book against the law of Gundobad, Gundobad himself being lost in his perfidy, his successor Sigismund the King to the Catholic faith he converted: in whose conversion he recited a Homily among the people, most full of sweetness of senses and most sweet of the composition of words. But that St. Sigismund, his father still long surviving, had embraced the Catholic faith, we gather from various epistles of St. Avitus, of which that which is numbered XXIX among the published ones, indicates also his zeal in coercing heretics and preserving from their fraud the newly converted subjects, written to the Lord Sigismund himself with this beginning. Through all the time of my life indeed I acknowledge myself a debtor of asserting service: but more intently at the present festivity, which occupies your solicitude not less in exploring the attempts of heretics, than in celebrating the cults of our part. Since by a certain annual contagion the adversaries being gathered, with attentive labor it is to be cared for by you, lest by the fraud of alien craftiness sprout up, what in the name of God now your victory by celebrable virtue succeeds. The example of Sigismund his children followed, his son Sigeric, and his daughter afterward married to Theoderic King of the Franks of Austrasia: with his children. of whom treats title VIII among the lost Homilies of Avitus; the Homily said at the conversion of the Lord Segisric, the day after his sister from the Arian heresy was received.

[3] The most illustrious and most memory-worthy work of Sigismund converted to the orthodox faith was that, of which in the Chronicle Marius Bishop of Avenches makes mention, thus writing. Florentius and Anthemius being Consuls (these mark the year of the Christian Era 515) the monastery of Agaunum was constructed by King Sigismund. he founds or restores the monastery of Agaunum. Others prefer more to say it was renovated by Sigismund, and to this looks the title of the seventh homily of St. Avitus, said in the Basilica of the Saints of Agaunum, at the renovation of the monastery itself or the passion of the Martyrs, namely St. Maurice and his Companions of the Theban Legion, whose Acts written by St. Eucherius Bishop of Lyons will come to be illustrated by us on the day September XXII. Meanwhile from the same we here note, that Agaunum is distant about sixty miles from the city of Geneva. Moreover on the day February XI of the same monastery we treated, on account of St. Severinus, there Abbot, or more truly Pastor or Rector of the inhabitants of promiscuous sex and order: whence here it pleases to repeat what in num. 5 we had taken from the history of the Abbots of Agaunum, written by a disciple of St. Achivus the third Abbot: When Sigismund the son of King Gundebad, now girt with the honor of the Patriciate, had cast off the perfidy of the Arian depravity, having obtained the faith of the Catholic dogma, using the counsel of Maximus Bishop of Geneva he most intently commended his mind toward the studies of religion. At that time Maximus, Bishop of the city of Geneva, conspicuous for all sanctity and purity, and excellent for the briskness of all industry, with whom the preaching of the divine word vehemently prevailed, incited the heart of Sigismund to this devotion, that from that place, which by the precious death of the Theban Martyrs and the effusion of blood the illustrious ones with happy stains with a rosy variety had adorned, the mingled habitation of the promiscuous common folk should be removed; and to that, to which the splendor of life through the atrocity of the passion had been acquired, the splendor of the inhabitants should return; and the actions of darkness being shut out, a perpetual day might be had: so it would be that the same patronizing he might most safely possess both the kingdom and the integrity of the kingdom … Therefore counsel being taken, which to the whole community by the instinct of God it pleased, it seemed good, that all women should be removed from the same place, and the secular families being removed, the family of God there, that is of monks, should be placed, who day and night imitating the heavenly things, should be urgent in handling the divine songs.

[4] The Rule, properly prescribed to the people of Agaunum, is said the rule of the monastery of Tarnata, lately published by Lucas Holstenius, in part 2 of the Codex of rules: The Rule prescribed to the people of Agaunum which also Carolus le Cointe inserted in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks on the year 536 num. 200 and following, and shows it to be very conformable to the Rules of SS. Pachomius, Augustine, and Caesarius. Josias Simler in book 1 of the description of Valais asserts, that Sigismund King of the Burgundians at Agaunum, in honor of the Martyrs there slain constructed a famous monastery; and the little town of Tarnata, situated near, the walls being enlarged joined to the monastery, and from that time the name of Tarnata grew obsolete, and now is commonly called St. Maurice: more concerning this matter we said at the Life of St. Severinus. But that the said rule of the monastery of Tarnata or Agaunum was written in the time of St. Sigismund we gather from the Life of St. Eugendus the Abbot, published by us on the Kalends of January, which his disciple wrote, and concludes it thus: The Institutes also, which concerning the formation of our monastery of Agaunum, the holy Marinus the Presbyter, Abbot of the island of Lérins, urging it, we set forth, will luculently fulfill your desires both for the ensigns of the institution, and for the authority of him commanding, Christ helping. St. Eugendus was in religion a disciple of St. Romanus, dead before the year 460, and he himself beyond the sexagenary age lived almost six months. What if at the death of Romanus St. Eugendus had been twenty years old? it would follow that the year of Christ five hundred only by living he had reached: so that his disciple could seem about the very foundation of the monastery of Agaunum itself to have written these things: who while he calls the monastery of Agaunum, Ours; and the institutes by command of Marinus Abbot of Lérins he set forth; indicates that there was a great communication of things among those three monasteries, namely the Lérins one and the Jura one of St. Romanus and this of which we treat the Agaunum one. The same writer of the Life of St. Eugendus moreover asserts, that by his own were read and performed the institutes of St. Basil the Bishop, of the Fathers of Lérins, of St. Pachomius, and of the more recent Cassian, who died about the year 448.

[5] We illustrated on the day March XXVIII the Acts of St. Gunthramnus

King of the Burgundians of the Merovingian family of the Franks, St. Gunthramnus for the monastery of St. Marcellus assumes, and we collected them from the Ecclesiastical History of Gregory of Tours, adding an Appendix from the Chronicle of Fredegarius, in whose first chapter these things are read: In the year 24 of his reign (this is of Christ 584) by divine love he ordered the church of Blessed Marcellus … wonderfully and skillfully to be built, and there monks being gathered he founded a monastery, and the same Church with several things enriched. He commanded a Synod of 40 Bishops to be made, and after the manner of the institution of the monastery of the Saints of Agaunum (which in the times of King Sigismund by Avitus and the other Bishops, the Prince himself commanding, had been confirmed) by the conjunction of this Synod Gunthramnus took care that the institution of the monastery of St. Marcellus should be confirmed. Dagobert the first King of the Franks, and Dagobert for the monastery of St. Dionysius. by the witness of the same Fredegarius chapter 79, when he had founded the church and monastery of St. Dionysius near Paris, had ordered psalmody there after the manner of the monastery of the Saints of Agaunum to be instituted, but the facility of the Abbot Aigulfus is known to have gainsaid the same institution. Below in the Acts Gregory of Tours asserts that St. Sigismund after his son Sigeric was slain, instituted at Agaunum assiduous psalmody, or as in the book on the Glory of the Martyrs he says, instituted daily psalmody, in the other Life choirs of those singing psalms: as the ninth rule is indicated concerning the Canonical Hours to be recited day and night, among which are prescribed works to be undertaken. What was the peculiar grace of the said Psalmody, on account of which it was sought by others, does not agree sufficiently among the authors. Some call it assiduous, because, by some and others mutually succeeding, day and night it was continued, as was done among the Acoemete monks of the East, founded by St. Alexander, at whose Acts on January XV these things are explained §2. Others understand only a peculiar form of psalmody, prescribed at certain hours of day and night.

[6] While St. Sigismund was intent on these things, his father King Gundobad died, his father being dead, and Sigismund himself was raised King into his place, and obtained the whole kingdom of the Burgundians, Peter being Consul, that is in the year of Christ 516, as hands down the above-mentioned Marius. But in the year next following, Agapitus being Consul, was celebrated the Council of Epaone, in a place over the Rhône now called Yenne, as we more largely set forth at the Life of St. Avitus Bishop of Vienne, he permits councils to be celebrated under whose and Viventiolus Bishop of Lyons's direction it was performed. How broad then was his kingdom appears from the subscriptions of the said Council in Sirmond and others, where are enumerated twenty-seven Episcopal Sees within the bounds of the Burgundian dominions, namely Tarentaise and Octodurum, of the Bishops of the kingdom, at Epaone in the Graian Alps; Embrun, in the maritime Alps; Vienne, Grenoble, Valence and Geneva, in the first province of Vienne; Chalon, Avignon, Vaison, Carpentras, Orange, Die, Trois-Châteaux and Viviers, in the second province of Vienne; Sisteron, Apt and Gap, in the second province of Narbonne; Lyons, Mâcon, Langres and Chalon-sur-Saône, in the first province of Lyons; Nevers, in the province of Sens or the fourth of Lyons; Besançon, Avenches, Windisch and Belley, in the Greatest province of the Sequani or the fifth of Lyons. and at Lyons What in the mentioned Council of Epaone and another of Lyons, perhaps held in the same year, concerning the discipline of morals and Ecclesiastical rules, was excellently constituted by the Bishops, can there be seen.

[7] after his son was slain, In the following years, when all things succeeded happily and prosperously, and a second wife had been led into his bed; by stepmotherly snares his son Sigeric, by his command unjustly was slain, Symmachus and Boethius being Consuls, that is in the year 522; and there followed the Frankish war, in which in the following year, Maximus being Consul, and he himself betrayed by his own is slain, St. Sigismund to the Franks by his own Burgundians was delivered, and into Frankland in monastic habit led, and there with his wife and sons cast into a well, as in Marius we read. That slaying pertains to these Kalends of May, of the following year 524, on which his brother Godemar is handed down ordained King of the Burgundians in the Chronicle of the same Marius.

[8] The things indicated hitherto we confirm below in some of his Acts, The epitome of his Life from Gregory of Tours. drawn from the History of the Franks of Gregory of Tours book 3 chapters 5 and 6, to which we subjoin other Acts, described from several old codices, namely the Trier ones of St. Martin and St. Maximinus, the Fritzlar one of the church of St. Peter, the Ebersberg one of the Society of Jesus, the Corsendonk one near Turnhout of the Canons Regular, likewise from another codex preserved in Gaul, moreover from the Legend of the holy Patrons of Bohemia, others from various MSS. printed at Cracow in the year 1511, and from an old Breviary of Prague. We have also some compendium of the same from a Prague MS. These Acts found their authority in Ado Bishop of Lyons: who thence took some things. The rest in the Notes we observe; but we omit the rhythm, sent to us from the Missal of Cracow.

[9] The most ancient vestige of Ecclesiastical veneration appears from the aforepraised Gregory of Tours, who in book 1 on the Glory of the Martyrs chapter 75 has these things: Often the Lord enervates the arrogance of a contumacious mind with the rod of correction, that the same generation may restore his cult, as once concerning King Sigismund manifest faith brings forth the deed. For this man, after his son was slain by the iniquitous counsel of his wife, a Mass celebrated in his honor, compunct in heart goes to Agaunum, and there prostrate before the sepulchres of the most blessed Martyrs of the happy Legion, did penance, beseeching that whatsoever he had transgressed, in this world the divine vengeance might repay him; namely that he might be held absolved in the judgment, if to him the evils which he had done, before he departed from the world, were repaid. And there both daily psalmody he instituted, and the place both in territories, and in the rest of things most abundantly enriched. But afterward captured by King Chlodomer with his sons, and slain by his command, to the same place carried, was committed to burial; whom enrolled in the fellowship of the Saints, the very thing which is done manifests. For if any now suffering from cold devoutly celebrate Masses in his honor, and for his rest to God offer an oblation, straightway the tremblings being compressed, the fevers being quenched, they are restored to their former health. The same things has Aimoinus book 2 chapter 4 and Aimoinus being followed Sigebert in the Chronicle on the year 515.

[10] The place in which the slaying was perpetrated, by the witness of the same Gregory of Tours, was called Columna, a village of the city of Orléans: but what this is, is in no wise ambiguous asserts Carolus Saussay book 3 of the Annals of the Church of Orléans: for that still has remained a well, into which St. Sigismund with his sons and wife was cast; and the feverish, coming to that well, the water being taken, recover (which he himself feverish in the year 1611 experienced), and that there is a chapel by name Columella, a parish on the confines, a church, one called Columiera, and another whose name is St. Peter of the village of Columba (which is in place of Columna, the letter being changed by usage, since still in the vulgar tongue carpenters call Columnas Columbas), and in this place was built a church, which is called of St. Sigismund with a Priory of the Order of St. Benedict, whose collation pertains to the Abbot of Micy: Likewise that the memory of St. Sigismund is held in a Chapel, which is called Campus-Roseus, where first as a captive he was brought. Thus Carolus Saussay.

[11] the memory in the sacred calendars But the most celebrated cult remained among the people of Agaunum, and is indicated in four old transcripts of the Hieronymian Martyrology: to which these words were adjoined: At Agaunum the passion of St. Sigismund the King, which everywhere in the more ancient MS. calendars and in Rabanus, Usuard and others are read. Ado of Lyons adorns him with this eulogy: Likewise in the city of Sion, in the place Agaunum, the passion of Sigismund the King, the son of Gundebald King of the Burgundians: who when he saw himself unable to resist the Franks, fleeing alone, his hair being laid aside took the habit of religion; and giving himself to fasts, vigils and prayers day and night, was captured by the Franks with his wife and sons, and submerged in a well he fell. But afterward revealed to a certain Abbot, and by him reverently buried, he also shone with miracles. Some things from Gregory of Tours Notker adds.

[12] The Translation of the body to Agaunum. More notable is what the Acts suggest, namely that the Holy bodies for three years in the water of the muddy pool lay unharmed, until namely by the Abbot of Agaunum, by the permission of King Theodebert, thence they were extracted, to the thresholds of the Holy Thebans to be carried and to a most worthy burial to be delivered. The day of this Translation since the Acts do not express, I know not whether it can safely enough be believed to have been April XXIX, when it is noted in our MS. Florary. But how long there thus the bodies buried lay hidden or in what year they were elevated from the earth, nowhere do I find indicated. That they were elevated can scarcely be doubted: nor does any better conjecture occur, than that this was done in the very same VI century, when namely the increasing miracles admonished, that an ampler honor should be paid to the sacred pledges.

THE COMPENDIUM OF THE LIFE

By the Author St. Gregory Bishop of Tours

book 3 of the History of the Franks chapters 5 and 6.

Sigismund Martyr, King of the Burgundians (S.)

FROM MSS.

[1] Gundobad ^a being dead, his kingdom Sigismund his son obtained, he founds the monastery of Agaunum: and the monastery of Agaunum with skillful care with houses and basilicas he built. Who, the former wife being lost, the daughter of ^b Theodoric King of Italy, by whom he had a son, by name Sigeric; took another wife, who very much against his son, as is the manner of stepmothers, to be malignant and to scandalize began. Whence it happened, that on one of the solemn days, when the boy recognized upon her the garments of his mother, moved with gall he said to her: For thou wert not worthy, that these garments should touch thy back, which are known to have been of thy Lady, that is, of my mother. But she kindled with fury, his son Sigeric persuaded by this one's stepmother he slays: instigates with deceitful words her husband, saying: This iniquitous one desires to possess thy kingdom, and thee being slain to extend it as far as Italy: namely that the kingdom which his grandfather Theodoric of Italy ^c held, this one also may possess. For he knows, that thee living he cannot fulfill it; and unless thou fall, he does not rise. By these and such words he incited, using the counsel of his iniquitous wife, an iniquitous parricide he became. For he orders his son sleepy with wine to sleep after noon: for him sleeping a thong ^d being placed under his neck, and bound under his chin, two boys drawing toward themselves mutually, he was suffocated. Which done, the father now late repenting, falling upon the lifeless corpse, began to weep most bitterly. To whom a certain old man is reported thus to have said: Weep for thyself henceforth, who by wicked counsel hast been made a most savage parricide. For this one, who innocent was slain, it is not necessary to be bewailed. he does penance. Nevertheless he going off to the saints of Agaunum, for many days enduring in weeping and fasts, begged pardon: instituting there ^e assiduous psalmody, from Lyons he returned, the divine vengeance forthwith pursuing him. His

[2] But Queen Crotildis ^g addresses Clodomer and the rest ^h of her sons, saying: Let me not repent, dearest ones, of having sweetly nourished you. Be indignant I pray at my injury and avenge with sagacious zeal the death of my father and mother. They hearing these things, seek the Burgundies, ⁱ and direct against Sigismund and his brother Godomar: and their army being vanquished, Godomar turns his back: ^k but Sigismund, while he strives to flee to the passes of Agaunum, captured by Clodomer, with his wife and sons a captive is led away, and within the boundary of the city of Orléans in ^l custody placed is detained. These Kings departing, captured by the Franks he is shut up in prison ^m Godomar his forces being resumed gathered the Burgundians, and recovered the kingdom. Against whom Clodomer again disposing, destines to kill Sigismund: to whom by Blessed ⁿ Avitus the tenth Abbot of Micy, a great Priest at that time, it was said: If, he says, looking to God thou amend thy counsel, that thou suffer not these men to be slain; God will be with thee, and setting out thou wilt obtain victory. But if thou kill them, thou thyself delivered into the hand of enemies, by a similar lot wilt perish: and it will happen to thee and thy wife and thy sons, what thou shalt have done to Sigismund and his wife and his children. But he despising to listen to his counsel, says: For I think it a foolish counsel, that the enemies being left at home, against the rest I should go; and they from behind, this one rising in front, between the two wedges of enemies I should rush. he is slain with his wife and sons. For more satisfactorily and more easily the victory will be wrought, if one be separated from the other: which being slain, easily also the other can be destined to death. And straightway Sigismund being slain with his wife and sons, at ^o Columna, a village of the city of Orléans, ordering them to be cast into a well, he sought the Burgundies, calling to his [p] aid Theodoric the king. But he [q] wishing to avenge the injury of his father-in-law, promised to go. And when alike at Vézeronce [r], a place of the city of Vienne, they had been joined, with Godomar they fight. And when Godomar with his army had turned his back, and Clodomer was pursuing, and from his own by no small space was distant, they feigning his standard, give to him voices, saying: Hither hither turn: for we are thine. But he believing, went off, and rushed into the midst of the enemies. Whose cut-off head and fixed on a pole they raise on high. Which the Franks beholding, and recognizing Clodomer slain, their forces being repaired they put Godomar to flight, oppress the Burgundians, and reduce the country into their power. Godomar again recovered the kingdom. [s]

ANNOTATA.

p. By others solace.

q. The injury done, that by the Burgundians he had been delivered to the Franks.

r. Two leagues distant from Vienne, commonly la plaine de Veseronce.

s. At length nevertheless in the year 532 Godemar being put to flight, the Franks obtained Burgundy, and thereafter retained it.

ANOTHER LIFE

From VIII MS. codices and old editions.

Sigismund Martyr, King of the Burgundians (S.)

BHL Number: 7717

FROM MSS.

[1] In the time of ^a Tiberius the elder Augustus (who as the rest of the regions, so ruled the Gauls) there went out a certain nation from an island which the Ocean sea girds, whose name is ^b Scandania, who from the name also of the region of Scandinii were called. The Burgundians having set out into the Gauls, And when they had penetrated other kingdoms and regions with their wives and sons, and had come even to the river Rhine, there by command of the Emperor Tiberius the burgs beyond the river Rhine, through the spaces of many years to guard they were compelled. Whence also ^c Burgundians they were called, and until today Burgundians are called. Who in the time of ^d Valentinian Augustus going out from those burgs, sought the Gauls, and in barbarian manner the lands and peoples subjected to the Imperial dominions invaded: and from their own stock a King being raised, by name ^e Gondiochus, the Roman inhabitants of the Gauls, Gundiochus the grandfather of St. Sigismund reigns. whom flight from their sight did not hide, with the hands of swords slew: and a few being left and subjected to their dominions, they were placed under their domination.

[2] But Gondiochus being dead, his sons Gundebadus, and Gondegisilus the kingdom being received, the phalanxes of the Gauls and the lands among themselves divided: there succeeds him Gundebadus the father, so that Gondebadus claimed two portions for his dominions: with the third Godegisilus was content. Whence among them a great strife arose, so that from one another and from fraternal charity they departed. In those times when the nation of the Sicambrians, growing strong with an unlawful band, had laid low and devastated many regions and neighboring nations with their own Kings, and the dominions subject to them: among the other kingdoms of the West, the borders of the Gauls also to be invaded boldly, ^f though unwilling, they sought. To whom joined Gondegisilus the brother of Gondebadus the King, with the vow of fighting, with the help of the Germans, and by his brothers aided by the Franks driven out against the same brother, in birth and power the greater ^g, seized arms. Whom by a fraudulent contrivance of war put to flight, the kingdom of the Gauls for a few days he seemed to have subjected to himself.

[3] But not long after his forces being resumed, Gondebadus besieged Vienne: and the gates of the same city being cast down, he recovers the kingdom, with a great army his captured brother Gondegisilus with his wife with fire burned. Another brother also Chilpertus he slew, his wife with a stone bound to her neck into the water he submerged, their two sons with the sword he slaughtered; two daughters nonetheless he condemned to exile. Of whom the elder, ^h by name Sedeolenica, her garment being changed vowed herself to God: but the younger, who was called Crotildis, ⁱ afterward to Clodoveus King of the Franks in nuptial manner betrothed was married, and slays his brothers with their wives and children and that same barbarian to the faith of Christ through the doctrine of St. Remigius the Pontiff converted. Moreover the aforesaid King Gondebadus, the Franks, the auxiliaries of his brother, in the aforesaid city in a certain tower gathered with the sword slaughtered, and condemned several of the Burgundians to death, nothing afterward to the now-said King Clodoveus disposing to render: and so all the kingdom, which he had lost, he claimed for himself.

[4] But there were born to him two sons, Sigismund and Gundemar: St. Sigismund having embraced the Catholic faith, and although Gundebadus the king himself, and all the nation of the Burgundians at that time ^k of the Gothic law seemed to be cultivators, his sons to the cult of the Christian and Catholic religion ^l he permitted to serve. Which law being received, the illustrious and venerable Sigismund the boy, when he had now come to perfect age, so great a devotion about the churches or the thresholds of the Saints kindled him, that day and night in vigils, fasts and prayers he incessantly persisted. But his father King [m] Gundebadus being dead, although unbelieving about the faith of Christ, all the nation of the Burgundians, together with a few Romans (who with them in the Gauls, and the father being dead taken as King, lacerated by their bites, dwelt despised) the most excellent man Sigismund for themselves as King chose. Who the Principate over the inhabitants of the Gauls being received, how he showed himself about the divine cult or to his Nobles, or what was in him in fasts, abstinence, and alms a liberality, in the severity of judgment a discretion, the following lesson will teach.

[5] And so when in such things always his mind incessantly seemed to be intent; he seeks eternal salvation: so concerning the salvation of his country and his army he seemed to be solicitous, that yet like a most prudent bee, that entrance, through which to the heavenly kingdoms he could come, he sought. These things the man full of God in his heart day and night handling, and from no other than from our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, He who receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet, shall receive the reward of a Prophet, the reward of a good work desiring to receive; so himself about the thresholds of the Martyrs he endeavored to expend, that the reward of the Martyrs to receive he might deserve. Matth. 10, 40 Meanwhile having allotted to himself in marriage the daughter of Theodoric King of Italy, on account of his son slain, by whom he begot a son by name Sigeric; she being dead he took another wife: by whose most wicked counsels deceived, the son of the former wife [n] he ordered to be slain.

[6] Afterward compunct in heart, when he had traversed many places of the Saints, he does penance, he came into that place which is called Agaunum, where St. Maurice with his fellow-soldier companions, for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, the palm of martyrdom to receive deserved: and as much by the journey as by fasts wearied, he meditated how he ought to serve the precious Saints, that to their bands he might be able to be associated. Then, not otherwise than by the nod of God, as we believe, an Angel announcing it to him it was revealed, that after the manner of the heavenly militia he should institute choirs of psalmody. Which counsel divinely received, at Agaunum he institutes choirs of psalmody. the holy and Apostolic men he consulted, whether salubriously

he should think it or not? Which question being ventilated among themselves, the holy Bishops, although ^o an unwonted work, yet the Lord assenting unanimously corroborated.

[7] Which holy work, namely of the servitude of God, when it had been perfectly instituted, and confirmed by the equal consent of all; what still remained for him, how he might attain the kingdom of the heavenly country, he devoutly besought, that the divine piety would show him. But because our Lord Jesus Christ did not suffer the remuneration of his labor to be longer deferred, to the palm of martyrdom He deigned to call him so far, that to the college of the Holy Theban Martyrs, whose office in the praises of God he had associated himself by devotion, also in the pleasantness of paradise he might be associated. But lest a more prolix narration generate distaste to the reader, to the most blessed passion, although with an unskilled speech, let us come.

[8] he withdraws into a monastery, Therefore when the Franks devastated very many almost kingdoms of the Gauls, and the nations and cities vehemently depopulated, a very great multitude of the Burgundians associated themselves with the Franks. Then Sigismund, seeing himself hence and thence to be straitened, sought the [p] mountain Versallis: and there after the manner of Elijah the Thesbite, that the ferocity of the most cruel nation of the barbarians he might escape, singularly to dwell he chose: because there hung over him the peril of life, according to that which the excellent preacher, writing of his tribulations, says: Perils among false brethren. 2 Cor. 11, 26 Then in divers manners the Burgundians, by necessity rather than by will, to the Franks wholly gave themselves; promising that the holy man Sigismund, their Prince, they would diligently seek out, and to them bound deliver.

[9] he takes the habit, This promise heard the holy man Sigismund, having learned their wickedness, the hair of his head he shaved, and himself from the Lay garment into the habit of Religion changed. Who while in the aforesaid place macerated with fasts and vigils rested, there a few of the Burgundians coming to him, as for the sake of love, to the sepulchres of the Saints [q] to lead him promised. And when to the enclosures of the same monastery of Agaunum the bands of the Burgundians together with the Franks had come, and betrayed by his own he is captured: after the manner of Judas the traitor, the Burgundians upon him hands [r] cast; and bound with chains delivered him to the Franks and their King Clodomer: who afterward, the divine vengeance exacting, for the same matter by the Burgundians in battle was slain. Then the Franks, fearing lest he should escape their hands, even to the appointed place, under a high guard together with his wife and sons, [s] Gystaldus, and Gundebaldus, bound to the place, whose name is [t] Belsa, they led. and is cast into a well with his wife and sons: And there a well dug by the ancients finding, that the madness of their cruelty they might satiate, adjudged to a capital sentence, by command of the King's brother [u] Clodomer, with head submerged downward, with his wife and sons into the well they cast.

[10] Where for three years the holy bodies, in the water of the muddy pool, unharmed lay: In which at nocturnal times by holy men divinely a lamp kindled, through that whole space of three years, through which there the holy bodies lay, was seen. But the three years passed, the holy and venerable Abbot of the monastery of the Saints of Agaunum [x], by an Angel admonished in a vision, that the sacred bodies, by divine admonition the sacred bodies are carried to Agaunum: as their souls in the heavens deserve to be joined to the blessed Legion, so also in the same place of burial should be associated. But the venerable man of God the aforesaid Abbot, full of anguish, how he should fulfill the Lord's command, knew not. Then to Ansemund the Burgundian, who until the day of the passion to the holy men a most firm faith is seen to have preserved, he directed his messengers, that to the glorious Prince [y] Theodebert King of the Franks his petition alike and suggestion he should carry, that the holy bodies of the Martyrs to the thresholds of the Holy Thebans to be carried he should permit. Which petition the most pious Prince granted.

[11] Then with great veneration of admiration, their holy bodies from the well drawing out, with choirs of psalmody to the monastery of Agaunum, in the church which is dedicated in honor of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, to a most worthy burial they delivered. In which place so great virtues the mercy of the Lord assiduously deigns to bestow on those praying with faith, that if anyone with the quartan type, that is the disease of fevers [z] invaded, faithfully shall be rolled before the ashes of the Saints, straightway his full health being received whole he returns. those laboring with fever are healed. Nevertheless also the rest of the infirmities, which the race of men are wont to invade, most frequently through the mercy of God, the holy Martyrs interceding, are put to flight, and the sick are brought back to their former health: God and our Lord Jesus Christ helping, to whom is honor, and glory, and power, through all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

m. In the year 516.

n. In the year 522.

p. Otherwise Verisalis: I scarcely doubt but that the place was near to the Royal city of Lyons. In the neighboring Dominion of Dombes there is indeed a place called Versallia, and only four leagues distant; but whether in that place there is a mountain I know not; if there were, it would square with the present matter.

q. Agaunum namely, distant a journey of three or four days from the territory of Lyons and the Dominion of Dombes.

r. So Marius hands down in the year 523, by the Burgundians he is delivered and in monastic habit led away.

s. Gystaldus, by others Sigladus, Gisgaldus, Gisclades. But Gundebaldus, and Gundebadus is written.

t. Bella or Belsia is the region in which is the dominion of Orléans.

u. Already we said his brothers were Childebert and Clothar likewise Kings. Gregory attributes the deed to Clodomer himself.

x. St. Innemund the Sanmarthani say under King Sigismund presided, and to him succeeded Ambrosius the second of that name. We find neither the name, nor the title of Saint of the former, nor the year in which the second began.

y. Theodebert, the son of Theodoric King of the Austrasians and grandson by the mother of St. Sigismund, perhaps in the dominion of Orléans after the death of Clodomer presided. Of Ansemund the Burgundian, but elsewhere nothing we have ascertained: he was perhaps powerful in the court of King Gundemar.

z. This gloss, added for the sake of explanation by someone in the margin, seems to have crept into the text: for not simply of fever, but of the quartan fever, the author seems to have wished to be understood.

THE TRANSLATION OF THE BODY

disputed between the people of Prague and of Imola.

Sigismund Martyr, King of the Burgundians (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

[1] Hitherto things certain enough, nor by anyone called into controversy, we have set forth: concerning the sacred head of the Holy Martyr easily also all will assent, that it is held at Prague in Bohemia, brought from Agaunum by Charles IV the Emperor about the year 1366. Indeed in the year of the Lord 1368 on the 18th day of the month of August, the honorable men and Lords Wratigovius the Dean, Heinricus of the Treasury, and Franciscus Dean of All Saints, Canons of the Holy Church of Prague, by the Chapter of the aforesaid Church, as regards the act below written, specially deputed, to make an inventory of the Relics of the Saints, ornaments, books and other things of the aforesaid church, the mandate enjoined them faithfully executed, and under the Rubric of the Heads of the Saints num. XXI thus noted: The head of St. Sigismund at Prague adorned is extant. Of St. Sigismund the Martyr King of Burgundy of pure gold, with two crowns; of which one is more precious, full of gems and pearls, which for adorning this head gave the daughter of the Emperor the Marchioness of Brandenburg: the other is as regards price inferior, which on Sundays is placed upon the head of St. Sigismund. There is also a gilded clasp for the breast of St. Sigismund, given by the same, having 19 pearls, 3 sapphires, 5 emeralds, 7 balas-rubies, 6 diamonds. Thus far the inventory, which whole exhibits Thomas John Pessina of Czechorod, Dean of the Metropolitan Church of D. Vitus, now also Bishop of Samandria, in Hungary, in the Seven-horned Phosphorus, Of the body translated to Prague which in the year 1673 he published of the Majesty and glory of the said church page 467. Nor concerning the certainty of this head is there anyone who contradicts the people of Prague. For the possession of the rest of the body the people of Imola contend; whom before we hear, are to be produced on the part of the people of Prague those things which make for them.

[2] In the MS. Chronicle of Benessius Krabicze of Weitmille, a Man of an Illustrious Family, Canon of Prague and Archdeacon of Žatec, a contemporary Writer, these things are read in book 4, the testimony of an old Chronicle on the year

1365. In the same year, the Lord Emperor was crowned with the crown of the Kingdom of Arles, which is subject to the Roman Empire, in the city of Arles, with the greatest solemnity. After therefore the Emperor had disposed with the Lord Pope his affairs and those of the Sacred Empire, according to all his will, license being received from him, he proceeded thence with all joyfulness and gladness, and came to Agaunum for the sake of devotion of visiting the thresholds of the Holy Theban Martyrs: where at that time rested a most precious treasure, namely, the Body of St. Sigismund King of Burgundy: which he obtained to be given to him, and brought with him to Prague, and it was received processionally in the church of Prague on the day of Blessed Augustine. Which body of St. Sigismund there shone with great miracles, which related to us by the sufficient testimony of trustworthy men, and before us proved, are described below. And of these miracles of St. Sigismund there is a special tract or booklet in the Sacristy of Prague. Thus he who then lived and saw these things, very solicitously noting that that Kingdom was subject to the Roman Empire. But, besides that the city of Arles from the time of Frederick had arrogated to itself the form and liberty of a Republic, as now the free cities of the Empire; the immediate dominion of it and of the rest of the Province pertained to the Queen of Naples Joanna: wherefore when she had complained of that act of Charles, he himself the reason of his deed being rendered, all the right which he pretended ceded to Louis of Anjou, the brother of Charles King of France. But the Emperor had ascended from Arles to Avignon, whence to him making his journey through Dauphiné and Savoy toward Helvetia it was easy in transit to survey Agaunum.

[3] We have a transcript of the old Martyrology of Prague, written about the year 1460, from some more ancient one, indeed bearing the year 1254, but from time to time augmented with new accessions, especially on the occasion of the very many most notable Relics, with which everywhere and most studiously sought out he enriched the church of St. Vitus the aforepraised Charles. In this Martyrology so augmented, these things are read: In the city of Sion the birthday of St. Sigismund the King, and of the old Martyrology, who captured by the Franks, with his wife and sons, submerged in a well fell. There follow then, the things which verbatim are found printed in the manner of a Rubric in the Breviary of Prague at Venice in the year 1517 page 361 with this tenor: Whose, namely Sigismund's, body Charles the King coming from Avignon to Octodurum, otherwise to Agaunum, in the diocese of Sion, with great prayers and gifts obtained, and thence to the Church of Prague translated in the year of the Lord 1365. Which Saint indeed buried at Prague shone with greatest and unutterable miracles: so that to his tomb at Prague there were concourses from all parts of the world: and on account of the famous and great miracles he was noted with the other Patrons of the Church of Prague and of the kingdom of Bohemia. The Queen the wife of the aforesaid Emperor Charles surrounded the head with purest gold and adorned it with most precious gems. Of this feast a special memory is made in the diocese of Prague, both in the Office and in the celebration, on the day following after Philip and James. Because since by the greatness of his miracles he has been made the Patron of Bohemia, it was fitting that he should have a special day of festivity for himself. Thus far the Martyrology and from it the Breviary of Prague, to whose Martyrology in the original first that appendix already seems long ago to have been adjoined, at least under the reign of Sigismund before the year 1417, in which the Hussites beginning to rage against sacred things, took away from the Emperor and the Chapter of Prague the faculty of increasing the cult of the Saints, to whom, as below will be seen, it had to be thought rather, how the Relics of the Saints they might withdraw into safety.

[4] There perseveres hitherto on the day May II the cult of St. Sigismund in the Bohemian Archdiocese under the rite of a Double of the second class, and there are recited three proper Lessons of the Life of the Saint himself, of the present Breviary of Prague, of which the last thus is concluded: The relics of the sacred body, carried to the temple of Agaunum, in the same lay, until by Charles the Fourth the Emperor carried to Prague, a glorious tomb there they found. John Dubravius Bishop of Olomouc in book 22 of the Bohemian History concerning this translation thus writes: in the History of Dubravius Charles after he returned from Italy; and from this journey turning aside to Agaunum, there, besides the relics of the divine Maurice, learned that the body moreover of Sigismund King of Burgundy famous for many miracles lay; there urges the townsmen to ask for it, as for their countryman, on account of the commerce of the Vandalic tongue: nor did he desist from his undertaking, until he obtained it, and with himself to Prague with the greatest veneration of all carried it.

[5] and of Hagecius. Wenceslaus Hagecius in the Bohemian History published about the year 1540 adds, that an altar to the honor of St. Sigismund by the same Charles was erected, and that he took care that both that and the mausoleum of his body should be becomingly adorned with gold, and covered with golden cloth. The aforepraised Dean, in the same his Phosphorus weaving a Diary of the relics preserved in the church of Prague page 508, says that the holy body at length on the vigil of St. Wenceslaus, that is September XXVII, was devoutly and honorably deposited in the chapel, in which even today it rests, namely by the very Emperor Charles, of whom the aforepraised Hagecius thus continues to speak: on account of the name of Sigismund given to the Emperor Sigismund and to Kings. And when to him in the year 1368 a son was born, on account of his singular affection toward St. Sigismund, he wished him in holy baptism to be called Sigismund, and a hundred marks of silver through the Bishops of the Churches to be distributed among the poor, that for the health of his son they might beseech God. This is Sigismund afterward also crowned Emperor, who was the same King of Hungary, Bohemia, and also King of Poland designate, but rejected, nay also Marquis of Brandenburg; who gave the said Marquisate to Frederick Burggrave of Nuremberg, in which family hitherto it perseveres. Together with this Emperor Sigismund (under whom we believe the cult of St. Sigismund vehemently increased, and equaled to the other Patrons of Bohemia) that most celebrated name remained in all the neighboring kingdoms and provinces: and there were three Kings Sigismund in Poland, and various Dukes and illustrious men in the said regions.

[6] Andreas Saussay, in the Gallican Martyrology treating of St. Sigismund, at length, he says, by Charles IV the Emperor and King of Bohemia when he came into Gaul, his most sacred body received as a precious gift, and into Bohemia transported, at Prague, in the metropolitan church … with eminent devotion and reverence was placed. And these are the chief things, which concerning the body of St. Sigismund translated to Prague we have found. The head is preserved in Poland I add from a letter of Thomas of Czechorod Dean of Prague, written on July XXIV of the year 1674. The body of St. Sigismund even today in the Metropolitan Church, in a chapel dedicated to the honor of the same Saint, in a marble tomb placed at the chief altar and contiguous to it, and above covered with red silk, and adorned with other silk veils, we piously venerate: where also a perpetual lamp burns. The head Wenceslaus II King of Bohemia had given by gift to Sigismund I King of Poland, his brother by birth; which now is preserved in Poland, in the city of Płock, or Plosci (this is situated on the right bank of the Vistula, between Warsaw and Toruń) in the castle Basilica, erected under the title of the same Saint, given by Sigismund III to the same Basilica, enclosed in a reliquary of refined gold (as writes Starovolscius the Polish writer, in Masovia near the beginning), and with plainly royal munificence, with gems and precious stones adorned. Would that now there survived that booklet of miracles, of which the above-cited Benessius makes mention: but, alas! it burned with the burned sacristy and temple, or among the hands of the heretics it perished: and so it can be more easily wished than hoped, that some copy of it has existed elsewhere, and preserved to this day may at some time come to light.

[7] Meanwhile from the notable work of our George Crugerius on the sacred ashes of the Kingdom of Bohemia, and the May triumphs in it published in the year 1669 at Litomyšl receive these few things. when first he had expedited a childbirth for the Empress, Among the other miracles of St. Sigismund translated into Bohemia, the rise and nativity of Sigismund King of Hungary and Bohemia, then also Roman Emperor, is reckoned. To the head of the Empress Elizabeth laboring perilously to childbirth, the Canons of Prague applied the venerable head of St. Sigismund; and because from the straits of death by that ceremony they expedited the royal infant, therefore to him Charles the father commanded the name of the Martyr in holy baptism to be imposed. From the son a little after the Burgundian savior turned the benefit upon the father the Emperor himself, at Karlstein (it is a castle, once the keeper of the crown and the rest of the treasures of the Kingdom) so a capital disease had fastened to the bed, because it had afflicted, Charles the founder of the place, that they despaired of his rising from it however most skilled physicians. The wife Elizabeth, having lately experienced in her son the power of the Saint Sigismund, dared also in saving her husband to solicit his aid with the greatest gifts. That therefore she might divinely stay him precipitating into death, from Karlstein even to Prague on foot the Empress suppliant went to the sepulchre of the Martyr, and that she might obtain the health of the Emperor, gifts altogether Imperial, twelve golden dishes, to the heavenly Helper she presented. Scarcely had she laid down in the sacred tomb the saving gifts, and poured forth with tears prayers; when to Charles in that very moment the strength returned, the disease yielded, health finally wholly the head, the heart, the whole body occupied. Wherefore those twelve golden dishes were melted, and into a crown, which should adorn the head of St. Sigismund, were converted. There stood forth thereafter the most sacred Relics to the veneration of the whole Kingdom, gleaming with gold: and which Kings and Emperors experienced salutary, then very many others having received health, from the same a hundred subjects, every kind or sex, the driving off of any diseases whatsoever, after they had suppliant sought the patronage, with certain miracles indeed, obtained. On account of these so many and so great prodigies, the feast of Sigismund the King and Martyr is solemnly celebrated in the diocese of Prague. When heresy afterward reigning the faith of the Bohemians grew cold, Sigismund, because he was no longer as was fitting venerated, his beneficent right hand also thereafter to no one extended.

[8] These things premised I pass to the other part of those contending concerning the body of St. Sigismund. In the year 1660, about to set out for Rome, we came from Bologna to Imola or Forum Cornelii, as the ancients called it. In that city after other temples surveyed, we also came to the church of the Olivetan Fathers, At Imola in Italy also the body is said to be, where it was affirmed to us that there was the sacred body of St. Sigismund King of the Burgundians, which in a chapel to the left of the choir, in a marble tomb, raised above an altar, with a wooden cover more elegantly carved and gilded was covered: and this sustained Angels of the same work, standing on the gilded steps of the aforesaid altar. But the veil being drawn back, which between the aforesaid Angels under this reliquary was hung, there could be read a testimony of the translation made to Imola. The arm of the same Saint at the right pillar of the choir was preserved in a most elegant repository, to which from the other side of the middle altar the miraculous image of the Virgin Mother of God corresponded.

[9] Ferdinand Ughellus, in volume 2 of Sacred Italy column 687, in Lithus the 32nd Bishop of Imola, has these things concerning St. Sigismund: He being Bishop in the year 1375, Ubertus

Abbot of St. Mary in Regula, of the Benedictine order, repaired the sepulchre, where the sacred remains of Sigismund King of the Burgundians rest. Famous is in the chapel of the sacred edifice a chest of no ignoble stone. The King armed sculptured stands by. On the right he has a monk bending his knees with a Pastoral staff, and an open codex in his hands holding forth: but on the left are these words:

I am called Sigismund, King of the Burgundians, A Martyr of Christ I am known by their blows: with this inscription From my devout sufferers I take away fevers, From Ausonia to Imola the Abbot translated me Buried in the earth. In this chest he placed me, The excellent Doctor Ubertus of Novara, Abbot of this monastery, founder, and the second restorer. In the year 1375.

The chest at the head and feet displays signs, a triple lion, one placed upon the other, and a royal diadem. In the reliquary, in which is preserved the arm of St. Sigismund, and only a finger torn off from the arm, written is read: This is the arm of St. Sigismund, 1382. But in what year the body was translated to Imola I have not found. his cult there May 2. That the Martyr's day is celebrated there on the VI of the Nones of May affirms Secundus Lancelottus, in book 2 of the Olivetan History.

[10] These things Ughellus, some of which sets forth Peter Laurence Galassus the Olivetan, in a sheet spread out on the Life of St. Sigismund printed in the year 1650. And first in the inscription not Ausonia, as Ughellus but Amsonia he reads, and asserts it to be a city of Burgundy, whether to Auxonne it was translated in the year 1146 near the river Saône, commonly called Auxon: but this is Aussona on the river Saône commonly Saône, on the confines of the County of Burgundy, four leagues distant from Dole, five from Dijon. But when, or on what occasion, or whether the body of St. Sigismund to it was carried, nowhere have we read. Then according to Galassus from Aussona in the year 1146, Rodulphus the Abbot, born at Ravenna, who afterward was Bishop of Imola, highly dear to Eugene III the Pontiff, carried it to Imola, and in his Abbatial Church of St. Mary in Regula placed it. But six years before, Benno dying in the year 1140 there succeeded Rodulphus of Ravenna in the Bishopric, writes Ughellus, and the same above says that he found nothing concerning the year of the translation.

[11] Afterward the same Galassus adds: In the year 1637, on the sixth day of Holy Week, in the year 1637 from the opened tomb when there were demolished those things, which in honor and custody of the most holy Body of our Lord on the fifth day had been accommodated; and from a beam, which headlong and by chance struck the aforesaid sepulchre, a certain crack fairly wide open had been contracted; from it not only the bones of the glorious Martyr, placed upon purple silk, a light being let in, a sweet odor emanates: lay open to the eyes; but thence also a fragrance of odor such came forth, which the odor of nard, balsam and any earthly sweetness whatsoever far surpassed and was heavenly, several witnesses examined by oath deposed. By whose testimony also it is established, that to the aforesaid bones if you add the bones of the arm, which in this same church outside the sepulchre are enclosed in a silver vessel, they are so many in number and so great, the body there entire that nothing perhaps is wanting of those, which are wont to constitute an entire body. Except yet two: namely the Head, which in the year 1365, as they report, by Charles IV of this name the Emperor was carried to Prague, except the head and a finger, there now also with the highest veneration of the Bohemians is venerated; and a finger, which at Smolensk (it is a city of the kingdom of Poland between Lithuania and the Muscovite empire) is honorably preserved by the Bishop of the same city, while in the year 1617 he passed through Imola to Rome, about to set out to the thresholds, we heard. These things Galassus. But that Charles the Fourth the Emperor is said to have received the entire Body at Agaunum, and to have carried it to Prague, above we showed.

[12] What therefore in this controversy is to be said, we prefer to be further discussed and resolved by others. This one thing could be suggested, whether it could be reckoned the body of his wife: the bodies of the Saints being elevated from the first burial among the people of Agaunum, and distributed through the altars and doing many miracles, the bones of the wife of St. Sigismund, into inner Burgundy afterward were translated, perhaps the holy King Gunthramnus requesting it; and that they fell to the city of Auxonne, but without the head; whence afterward the same were translated to Imola, and were believed to be of St. Sigismund himself, while namely the more distinct memory of the less known name gradually fades into the splendor of the more celebrated name; and because the head being wanting (which remained at Agaunum and with the body of the holy King is said to be preserved at Prague) there was wanting also the argument of discerning the sex. But why do we suspect that this is rather of the body of the wife than of either of the sons? Because namely the arm, which is at Imola, argues a body of adult and full age; but the sons of St. Sigismund were quite boys, born some years after the beginning of the paternal kingdom or the year 616, if the second wife bore them, as is probable. whose finger at Smolensk shines with miracles, Moreover the same virtue in healing those, who are seized by fever, divinely was granted to both bodies: for this, by the witness of Galassus, a thousand and a thousand times the Bohemians experienced. The same affords the water of Smolensk, which the Bishop himself over the aforesaid Finger causes to flow, and which to the sick citizens and Lithuanians every year he distributes. The people of Imola also a dust, finely scraped from the sepulchre of the Martyr, mixing with water or another liquor, a little drink thence, imploring health, devoutly take, and are freed from evil, as by daily experience or miracle is declared. These things Galassus. The glorious memory of St. Sigismund seems to have obscured, as we have already intimated, The Wife and sons also are held Martyrs. the veneration of the wife, nay also of the sons: meanwhile all in the second Acts are called Martyrs, and their Holy bodies: and in the very ancient Martyrology of the Church of Reims of SS. Timothy and Apollinaris of all an eulogy of this kind was wont to be recited: In the city of Sion, in the place Agaunum, the passion of the holy Martyrs Sigismund the King and his wife and two sons. These below in the Acts Gistaldus and Gundebaldus are called.

[13] The name of the wife none of the ancients expresses: the Dean of Prague in his Phosphorus page 499 enumerating the relics, the name was said to be Constantia which in the sacristy of St. Michael are preserved, for easier access to them, when on more solemn days, especially of the Patrons, publicly at the high altar or elsewhere they are to be exposed; names the head of St. Constantia, the consort of St. Sigismund the King. Indeed that by notable penance, according to the example of her husband, and by death undergone with a Christian mind, she expiated the crime of stepmotherly hatred, and deservedly also she herself is venerated as a Martyr, the indiscriminate corruption and translation of the body persuades, and the common elevation of her bones equally as of the others: for which we have an ancient and beyond all exception greater testimony page 480 of the year 1421 on the 6th day after the feast of SS. Tiburtius and Valerianus, and that the head is held at Prague. that is, on the day April XX when the Dominical letter was E, and so the feast itself recurring on the 14th day fell on Sunday. For then Brother Ulricus, Provincial Prior of the monastery of mount Paraclitus, otherwise at Owin, of the diocese of Prague, of the Order of the Celestine Brethren through Bohemia, Nicolaus the Subprior, and the rest of the Brethren of the aforesaid monastery, by their letters related in the already-said Phosphorus page 481, made known, that to that monastery personally coming the honorable man D. Raczko of Byrzkow, Archdeacon of Litoměřice and Sacristan in the church of Prague, with the Relics, which on account of the tyranny of the Wycliffites and Hussites from the church of Prague, by the knowledge and mandate and will of D. Sigismund the Emperor, and of D. the Dean and some of the Lords Canons of the said church of Prague, to be led away diligently under safe conduct procured; the same for the sake of the thing to be preserved enclosed in three little chests, locked, and sealed with the lesser seal of the Chapter of Prague, deposited with the said Religious: but among the names of those which could be described, is numbered by them there the head of the Consort of St. Sigismund, lacking the jawbone. Finally page 524 in the Appendix to the Diary, where are named the Relics of the Saints, whose feast days in the year the author could not find, is placed of St. Gunebaldus the Martyr a notable part, which that it is of the body of one of the sons of St. Sigismund you will not rashly suspect.

[14] Tamayus Salazar in his Spanish Martyrology inscribed St. Sigismund, on account of the threefold tradition or faith of the people of Vich in Catalonia concerning him. The first is said to be, that he as a youth in the neighboring mountains for two years led the eremitic life: the second is, that he left there two images of the holy Cross, of which one he had bought at Narbonne, Veneration in Catalonia. the other with his own hands he had made: and these are those whose finding Domeneccus describes, and says they were deposited in a temple constructed in honor of St. Sigismund. The third tradition is established in the Adversaria of Luitprand, where in n. 61 these things are read: The body of St. Sigismund King of the Burgundians and Martyr, taken from the city of Sion, is believed to have been carried to the tract of Barcelona, and deposited on mount Tesbiade, which mountain by the Moors with the word shortened they call Monseve. Tamayus excepts the head carried to Prague by Charles the Emperor. But that the entire body is handed down to have been translated to Prague above we said. Some bones could, whether of St. Sigismund or of the sons or also of the wife, have been carried to the aforesaid place: and on this occasion the rest, with too great credulity or license of fabricating, have been received among the common folk. That the Adversaria under the name of Luitprand were thrust forth in this century, already often with other learned men we have shown: but he who composed them, seems to have had something from the Acts, where in n. 8 the Saint is said to have sought the Mountain after the manner of Elijah the Thesbite.

[15] In a similar manner also elsewhere the sacred bones of St. Sigismund, or of the wife, or of the sons seem to be in honor, as if it were the entire body. At Milan, Thus Paulus Morigius in the Sanctuary of the Church and diocese of Milan, and Ughellus in the Preface to the Archbishops of Milan, write, without further proof, that at Milan in the Ambrosian church is the body of Sigismund the King and Martyr. Thus William de la Croix, in the Series of the Bishops of Cahors says, at Cahors, in the time of Stephen the first Bishop, who flourished at the end of the XI century, there were buried the bodies of Sigismund the King and his twin sons. Moreover Christophorus Hartmannus, in the Annals of the Hermitage of the Mother of God the monastery in Helvetia, and in Helvetia. asserts that in the year 1353 Charles IV the Emperor offered a halved head of St. Sigismund King of Burgundy: which I would not deny was really done, when he returned from Gaul into Bohemia: for it is no new thing that those are called heads, of which a good part is wanting; but nothing compels us to believe, that that which is at Prague is plainly entire. Finally I observe that two Sigemundi in Hermann Crombach among the Martyrs of the Ursuline Society page 653 are numbered, perhaps so called by posterity, since their names were hidden. There could meanwhile such an institution of a name, scarcely differing from the name of Sigismund, have given occasion somewhere, whither concerning their bodies something had come, that as

it should be judged to be the body of St. Sigismund the King.