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The Theban legion figures in hagiography as an entire Roman legion — of "six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men" — who had converted to Christianity and were martyred together, in 286 A.D., according to the hagiographies of Saint Maurice, the chief among the Legion's saints. Hagiography is the study of saints. ...
The Roman legion (from the Latin legio, meaning levy) was the basic military unit of ancient Rome. ...
Beliefs Though enormous diversity exists in the beliefs of those who self-identify as Christian, it is possible to venture general statements which describe the beliefs of a large majority . ...
Historically, a martyr is a person who dies for his or her religious faith. ...
Hagiography is the study of saints. ...
Saint-Maurice may refer to: Saint-Maurice, a former federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons, and located in the province of Quebec Saint-Maurice, VS (Roman Agaunum) is a commune and a district in the Valais, Switzerland. ...
It should be noted at the outset that there are no official inscriptions mentioning a "Theban" legion, and that such a naming does not follow the Roman conventions by which the historical legions were identified. See Roman legions and Legio I Maximiana, also known as Maximiana Thebaeorum (Notitia Dignitatum, VII). See also Legion software and Legion forummer. ...
The Legio I Maximiana (of Maximian) was a comitatensis Roman legion, probably created in the year 296 or 297 by the emperor Diocletian. ...
The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Roman imperial chanceries. ...
According to the tradition the garrison of the Legion was the city of Thebes, Egypt. There the Legion were quartered in the east until the emperor Maximian ordered them to march to Gaul, to assist him against the rebels of Burgundy. The Theban Legion was commanded in its march by Mauritius, Candidus, and Exupernis, all of whom are venerated as saints. At the Swiss town of Saint Maurice-en-Valais, then called Aguanum (see Aargau), so it was said, the bloody orders were given— since the Legion had refused to a man, to sacrifice to the Emperor— to "decimate" it by putting to death a tenth of its men. This act was repeated until none were left. Thebes [Θηβαι ThÄ“bai] is the Greek designation of ancient Egyptian niwt (The) City and niwt-rst (The) Southern City. It is located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the Nile. ...
Maximian Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus Herculius (c. ...
Roman Agaunum, the modern Saint Maurice-en-Valais in southwesternmost Switzerland, was a minor post confined between the Rhone and the mountains along the well-travelled road that led from Roman Genava, modern Geneva, over the Alps by the Great St. ...
Aargau (German Aargau, French Argovie, Italian Argovia, Romansh Argovia, in English sometimes Argovia) is one of the more northerly cantons of Switzerland. ...
Bodies identified as the martyrs of Aguanum were discovered and identified by Theodore, Bishop of Octudurum, who was in office at 350 AD. The basilica he built in their honor attracted many pilgrims; its remains can still be seen, part of the abbey begun in the early 6th century on land donated by King Sigismund of Burgundy. The following is a list of the Kings of Burgundy // Kings of the Burgundians Gebicca (late 4th century–407) Godemar Giselcar Gundicar (413–436) Aetius moves the Burgundians into Sapaudia (Upper Rhone Basin) Gunderic/Gundioc (436–473) opposed by Chilperic I (443–c. ...
The earliest surviving document describing "the holy Martyrs who have made Aguanum illustrious with their blood" is a letter from Eucherius, bishop of Lyon written about 450, which describes the succession of witnesses from the martyrdom to his time, a span of about 150 years. The bishop had journied to Agaunum, and reports on his visit: Saint Eucherius, Bishop of Lyon (died about 449) was a high-born and high-ranking ecclesiastic in the Christian Church of Gaul who is remembered for his letters advocating extreme self-abnegation. ...
- "We often hear, do we not, a particular locality or city is held in high honour because of one single martyr who died there, and quite rightly, because in each case the saint gave his precious soul to the most high God. How much more should this sacred place, Aguanum, be reverenced, where so many thousands of martyrs have been slain, with the sword, for the sake of Christ."
Eucherius' letter to Bishop Salvius reinforced the existing pilgrimage. Many were coming from diverse provinces of the empire, according to Eucherius, devoutly to honor these saints, and (important for the abbey of Aguanum) to offer presents of gold, silver and other things. He mentions many miracles, such as casting out of devils and other kinds of healing "which the power of the Lord works there every day through the intercession of his saints."
The tale was embroidered in later retellings and figured in the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine and was included among the persecution of Christians detailed in Foxe's Book of Martyrs, an early Protestant stand-by. The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine is a collection of fanciful hagiographies, lives of the saints, that became a late mediæval best seller. ...
Jacobus de Voragine (c. ...
Many Christians have experienced persecution from both non-Christians and from other Christians during the history of Christianity. ...
The Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe (first published by John Day in 1563, with many subsequent editions, also by Day), is an apocalyptically oriented English Protestant account of the persecutions of Protestants, mainly in England, and other groups from former centuries who were deemed by Foxe and others of...
The tradition is strengthened by the historical reputation of the eremites and other hermit saints of the Egyptian desert, the most famous of whom was Saint Anthony and the almost fanatical Christian following they inspired during the first two centuries. The first monks in the Christian tradition are known as the "Desert Fathers." A hermit, also known as an anchorite or anchoress, is a person living in voluntary seclusion, often for religious reasons. ...
A hermit (from the Greek erēmos, signifying desert, uninhabited, hence desert-dweller) is a person who lives to some greater or lesser degree in seclusion and/or isolation from society. ...
Saint Anthony may be: Saints Anthony the Great (251-356) Anthony of Padua (also of Lisbon) (1195-1231) Place names United Kingdom: St. ...
Saints associated with the Theban legion:
Saint-Maurice may refer to: Saint-Maurice, a former federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons, and located in the province of Quebec Saint-Maurice, VS (Roman Agaunum) is a commune and a district in the Valais, Switzerland. ...
Saint Verena of the Theban Legion Saint Verena of the Theban Legion departed on the 4th day of Thout (September 14). ...
The saints Felix and Regula, together with their servant Exuperantius are the patron saints of Zürich, their feast day being 11 September. ...
Location within Switzerland ▶(?) (German pronunciation IPA: ; in English often Zurich, without the umlaut) is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 366,145 in 2004; population of urban area: 1,091,732) and capital of the canton of Zürich. ...
External links - An analysis of the historicity of the account
- BibleProbe.com: The Theban Legion
- Martyrs of the Theban Legion: in Switzerland at Agaunum, Solothurn, Zurich, Zurzach; in Italy at Bergamo, Turin, Piacenza, in the Cottian Alps, Pinerolo, Milian, Ventimilia; in Germany at Trier, Bonn, Cologne, Xanten
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