“Abbaye1500” is a free application to accompany anyone wishing to go on the pilgrimage on the St-Maurice Abbey site, created on the occasion of its jubilee : 1500 years of uninterrupted activity. It’s extremely easy to use, accessible to everybody whatever their approach as a pilgrim. There are meditation texts, gestures to make individually or as a family, recordings of songs and a children’s story. It can accompany a few minutes’ personal reflection like carrying out a pilgrimage to St Maurice on the martyrdom site.
The application guides the pilgrim on a itinerary of six stages within the Basilica and secondly, the “tablet route” which leads from the Basilica to the Vérolliez Chapel on the Martyrs’ Field over about 2 kilometres and meeting four personalities who left their mark on the history of the Abbey. At each stage there is a text and audio recording – an edition for adults and a children’s version.
The Abbey was built in 515 in St Maurice / Valais / Switzerland by St Sigismond, King of Burgundy. He wanted to commemorate the martyrdom around the year 390 of a troop of Egyptian Roman soldiers commanded by Maurice. St Théodule, Bishop of Valais, had previously had a chapel built in honour of the martyrs on the site of the Abbey. Since the 12th century, the Abbey canons have followed the rules of St Augustine.