History
St. Maurice's Abbey is built on the ruins of a Roman shrine of the 1st century B.C. to the god Mercury in the Roman staging-post of Agaunum, and first came to prominence as a result of a now disputed account by Saint Eucherius, Bishop of Lyon. Eucherius experienced a revelation that convinced him of the martyrdom of a Roman legion, known as the "Theban Legion", under the leadership of Saint Maurice, around 285 A.D., in the area where the abbey is located.
In 515, the basilica of St. Maurice of Agaunum became the church of a monastery under the patronage of King Sigismund of Burgundy, the first ruler in his dynasty to convert from Arian Christianity to Trinitarian Christianity.
The abbey became known for a form of perpetual psalmody known as laus perennis that was practised there beginning in 522 or 523. The chants were sung day and night, by several choirs in rotation without ceasing. The practice continued there until the early ninth century.
The abbey had some of the richest and best preserved treasures in Western Europe.
In the mid-ninth century, Hucbert, brother-in-law of the Emperor Lothair II, seized the abbey. In 864 he was killed in a battle at the Orbe river. He was replaced by the victor, Conrad, Count of Auxerre. The offspring of Conrad became the kings of Burgundy, from Rudolf I to Rudolf III. They directed the abbey until around the year 1000.
Boson of Provence (879-887) received the abbey in 871 from his brother-in-law Charles the Bald. The lay abbot of the abbey succeeded Boson as king and was crowned Rudolf I in 888 in a coronation ceremony at the abbey itself. In 1840, Pope Gregory XVI conferred the title of the See of Bethlehem in perpetuity on the now independent St. Maurice's Abbey. 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. Today, it operates a highly-ranked secondary school for boys.
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