(A.D. 656.)
[French Martyrology. Authorities:--His life by Sigebert of
Gemblours, d. 1112, and mention by Gregory of Tours, and
Flodoard.]
This royal saint was the son of Dagobert I., King of France. The
father for a long time refused to have his son baptized, but at length
by the advice of S. Ouen and S. Eligius, then laymen in his court, he
recalled S. Amand, bishop of Maestricht, whom he had banished for
reproving his vices, and bade him baptize his son Sigebert. The young
prince's education was entrusted to Pepin, mayor of the palace, who
carried his charge into Aquitain, to his estates. But at the age of
three, Sigebert was invested by his father with the kingdom of
Austrasia, or Eastern France, including Provence, Switzerland,
Bavaria, Swabia, Thuringia, Franconia, the Rhenish Palatinate, Alsace,
Trèves, Lorraine, Champagne, Upper Picardy, and Auvergne.
Dagobert died in 638, and was succeeded by Clovis II., in the kingdom
of Western France. Pepin of Landen, was mayor of the palace to
Sigebert, and strove to train the young king in godliness and
Christian virtues. By his justice and temperance, S. Sigebert rendered
himself in his youth greatly beloved and respected by his subjects.
Pepin dying in 640, the king appointed Grimoald, mayor of the palace,
in his father's room. The Thuringians revolting, Sigebert reduced them
to their duty; and this is the only war in which he was engaged. His
munificence in founding churches and monasteries, his justice in
ruling, and the private virtues of his spotless life, made him to be
regarded as a model of a saintly king. After a reign of eighteen years
from the date of his father's death, he died at the age of
twenty-five, and was buried in the abbey of S. Martin, near Metz,
which he had built. His body was found incorrupt in 1063, and in 1170
it was enshrined in a silver case. When Charles V. laid siege to Metz,
Francis of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, demolished all the monasteries and
other buildings in the suburbs which could give harbour to the enemy,
amongst others that of S. Martin. The relics of the saintly king were
then removed to the collegiate church of Our Lady, at Nancy, where
they repose in a magnificent shrine.