Saint Maurice, a solider in the service of the prince

1,500 years ago, the Burgundian King Sigismond founded an abbey on the site of Saint Maurice’s execution. He was the first “prince” to show his attachment to the legionnaire who came from Thebaid in Egypt and died a martyr’s death in Agaune. After him, other emperors, kings, or dukes honored the soldier-saint because he embodied a model that gave importance to service to the prince and to obedience. The images devoted to Saint Maurice, in the Kingdom of France and in the French Empire, emphasized these characteristics, but the example of the Thebian can also serve to exhort the monarch, to remind them that they should also be watchful about the nature of the orders that they give, and to warn secular leaders who might be tempted to join the Pope, and even to denounce the decisions and wishes of the Roman Pontiff.