Prince Sigismund

Sigismund (Sigismundus, d. 524) was a prince and later king of the Burgundians, the son of King Gundobad. Under the influence of Bishop Avitus of Vienne, who served as his spiritual mentor, Sigismund converted from Arian Christianity to Nicene (Catholic) orthodoxy, a religious realignment that Avitus's letters help document. After succeeding his father around 516, he founded the great monastery of Saint-Maurice d'Agaune (515), instituting its famous perpetual psalmody (the laus perennis). His reign ended in tragedy: having executed his own son Sigeric in a fit of rage, he was overthrown and put to death by the Frankish king Chlodomer in 524, and was later venerated as a saint and martyr. He appears in the Roman Letters corpus as a recipient within the correspondence of Avitus of Vienne and in the poetry of Venantius Fortunatus.