From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   September 22nd - St. Maurice and The Theban Legion   
      
   The Theban Legion (also known as the Martyrs of Augunum) figures in   
   Christian hagiography[1] as an entire Roman legion - of "six thousand six   
   hundred and sixty-six men"[2] - 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. Their feast day is held on   
   September 22.   
      
   According to the legend related ca. 443-450 by Eucherius of Lyon,[3] 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[4] 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[citation needed].   
   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 transferred 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."[5]   
      
   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."   
      
   Accounts of the moral inculcated by the exemplum of the Theban Legion   
   resonate with the immediate culture of the teller. The miraculous   
   whole-hearted unanimity of the Legion, to the last individual, was   
   downplayed by Hugo Grotius, for whom the moral of the Theban Legion was   
   employed to condemn atrocities committed under military orders.[6] For   
   Donald O'Reilly, an apologist for the legend's historicity in 1978, it was   
   "the moral issue of organized violence".   
      
   It should be noted at the outset that Thebaei is the proper name of one   
   particular military unit: The existence of Legio I Maximiana, also known as   
   Maximiana Thebaeorum is recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum.[7]   
      
   Denis Van Bercham, of the University of Geneva, asserted that Eucherius'   
   presentation of the legend of the Theban legion was a literary production,   
   not based on a local tradition, by isolating its hagiographic conventions   
   from the anachronisms of local narrative elements;[8] he believed that   
   Eucherius derived his formulas from Lactantius and Orosius and 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, alleges that the model   
   of Maurice and the Theban Legion based on Eucherius of Lyon's letter was a   
   complete fiction.[9] Many Christian scholars question the accuracy of said   
   allegation.   
      
   See notes at:   
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theban_Legion   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The Christian life is a continuation and completion of the life of Christ in   
   us. We should be so many Christs here on earth, continuing His life and His   
   works, laboring and suffering in a holy and divine manner in the spirit of   
   Jesus.   
   -Saint John Eudes   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong    (1   
   Cor. 1:27)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   If you are seeking favor from God, say the following prayer:   
      
   Perfect Virgin Mary,   
   your perfect virgin life   
   began with a miraculous virgin conception   
   and a miraculous virgin birth.   
   By virtue of your Divine Son Jesus Christ's perfect virginity,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)