| Saint Sigismund of Burgundy | |
|---|---|
Fresco by Piero della Francesca |
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| Died | AD 524 Orléans |
| Honored in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Feast | 1 May |
| Patronage | Czech Republic |
Sigismund (died 524) was king of the Burgundians from 516 to his death. He was the son of king Gundobad, whom he succeeded in 516. Sigismund and his brother Godomar were defeated in battle by Clovis' sons and Godomar fled. Sigismund was taken by Chlodomer, King of Orléans, where he was kept as a prisoner. He was drowned in the village of St Pervay la Colombe, near Orléans. Godomar then rallied the Burgundian army and won back his kingdom. Meanwhile, Chlodomer ordered the death of Sigismund and marched with his brother Theuderic I, King of Metz, on Burgundy in 524.
Sigismund was a student of Avitus of Vienne, the Catholic bishop of Vienne who converted Sigismund from the Arian faith of his Burgundian forebears. Sigismund was inspired to found a monastery dedicated to Saint Maurice at Agaune in Valais in 515. The following year he became king of the Burgundians. Sigismund's son opposed him in 517, and insulted his new wife, so Sigismund had him strangled. Then, overcome with remorse, Sigismund retreated to the monastery that he had founded. In 523, he led the Burgundians against the invading Franks of Chlodomer, Childebert I, Clotaire I and Theodebert I. He lost the battle, put on a monk's habit and hid in a cell near his abbey. He was captured by Chlodomer, taken to Aurelianum (modern Orléans) and put to death. Afterwards, he was honoured by the Burgundians as a martyr. His bones were recovered from the well at Coulmiers where his body had been thrown, and a shrine developed near Agaune. Eventually Sigismund was canonized.
Correspondence has survived between Sigismund and Avitus, who was a poet and one of the last masters of the classical arts.
In the 14th century, Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, transferred Sigismund's relics to Prague, hence he has become a patron saint of the Czech Republic.
The emperor gave the saint's name to one of his son, the later King Sigismund of Hungary (who also became decades later King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor). In 1417, Sigismund of Hungary constructed a chapel in the honor of Saint Sigismund in the City of Buda. In 1424 King Sigismund took the reliques of Saint Sigismund from Prague and sent them to the Hungarian city of Varad, so they could be protected from the Hussites.[1]
He married in 494 Ostrogotha, the illegitimate daughter of Theodoric the Great and a concubine, as a part of Theodoric's negotiation for an alliance with Sigismund and the Burgundians. They had the following issue:
| Preceded by Gundobad |
King of Burgundy 516–523 |
Succeeded by Godomar |