Theban Legion

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The Theban Legion figures in Christian mythology and hagiography as an entire Roman legion — of "six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men" — who had converted en masse to Christianity and were martyred together, in 286, according to the hagiographies of Saint Maurice, the chief among the Legion's saints.

According to the legend, 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^[1] was commanded in its march by Maurice (Mauritius), Candidus, Innocent, and Exupernis (Exuperius), all of whom are venerated as saints. At the Swiss town of Saint Maurice-en-Valais, then called Agaunum, 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.

Bodies identified as the martyrs of Agaunum were discovered and identified by Theodore, Bishop of Octudurum, who was in office at 350. The basilica he built in their honor attracted the pilgrim trade; its remains can still be seen, part of the abbey begun in the early sixth century on land donated by King Sigismund of Burgundy.

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 journeyed to Agaunum, and his report of his visit multiplied a thousandfold the standard formula of the martyrologies:

"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."

As with many hagiographies, Eucherius' letter to Bishop Salvius reinforced an existing pilgrimage site. 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."

In the late sixth century Gregory of Tours was convinced of the miraculous powers of the Theban Legion, though he transfered the event to Cologne, where there was an early cult devoted to Maurice and the Theban Legion:

"At Cologne there is a church in which the fifty men from the holy Theban Legion are said to have consummated their martyrdom for the name of Christ. And because the church, with its wonderful construction and mosaics, shines as if somehow gilded, the inhabitants prefer to call it the "Church of the Golden Saints". Once Eberigisilus, who was at the time bishop of Cologne, was racked with severe pains in half his head. He was then in a villa near a village. Eberigisilus sent his deacon to the church of the saints. Since there was said to be in the middle of the church a pit into which the saints were thrown together after their martyrdom, the deacon collected some dust there and brought it to the bishop. As soon as the dust touched Eberigisilus' head, immediately all pain was gone."^[2]

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 strength of the legend is based on the historical reputation for the fanatical 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."

Saints associated with the Theban legion:

• Maurice
• Verena
• Felix and Regula, the patron saints of Zürich
• Gereon
• Candidus

[edit] Deconstructing the legend

It should be noted at the outset that Thebaei is the proper name of one particular military unit, according to David Woods (ref. Woods) The existence of Legio I Maximiana, also known as Maximiana Thebaeorum is recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum.^[3].

Denis Van Bercham, of the University of Geneva, disputed the veracity of the legend of the Theban legion.^[4] He determined that the decimation was an anachronism: the practice of decimation had not been practiced for at least a century (see Ammianus Marcellinus for Julian's misinterpretation of decimation) and that service by Christians in the legions before Emperor Constantine I was relatively rare. David Woods, Professor of Classics at the University College Cork, determined that the model of Maurice and the Theban Legion based on Eucherius of Lyon's letter was a complete fiction.^[5]

[edit] Notes

1. ^ "legio militum, qui Thebaei appellabantur" in Eucherius' letter.
2. ^ Van Dam, R. ed., Gregory of Tours: Glory of the Martyrs, Liverpool, 1988, ch. 85.
3. ^ Notitia Dignitatum, VII.
4. ^ Van Bercham, Denis, The Martyrdom of the Theban Legion, Basel, 1956.
5. ^ Woods, David, "The Origin of the Legend of Maurice and the Theban Legion", Journal of Ecclesiastical History 45 (1994), pp. 385-95.

[edit] External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia: "Agaunum"
• 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
• David Woods, "The origin of the cult of St. Maurice"