Coordinates	45°30′″N73°40′″N
name	Moselle
native name lang	fr
type	Department
image shield	Blason Moselle.svg
map caption	Location of Moselle in France
coordinates type	region:FR_type:adm2nd
coordinates display	inline,title
coordinates region	FR
subdivision type	Country
subdivision name	France
subdivision type1	Region
subdivision name1	Lorraine
seat type	Prefecture
seat	Metz(2 arrondissements:''Metz-Ville'',''Metz-Campagne'')
parts type	Subprefectures
parts style	para
p1	Boulay-MoselleChâteau-SalinsForbachSarrebourgSarregueminesThionville(2 arrondissements:''Thionville-Est'',''Thionville-Ouest'')
leader title	President of the General Council
leader name	Philippe Leroy
unit pref	Metric
area footnotes
area total km2	6216
population total	1036776
population as of	2006
population rank	20th
population density km2	auto
blank name sec1	Department number
blank info sec1	57
blank name sec2	Arrondissements
blank info sec2	9
blank1 name sec2	Cantons
blank1 info sec2	51
blank2 name sec2	Communes
blank2 info sec2	730
timezone1	CET
utc offset1	+1
timezone1 dst	CEST
utc offset1 dst	+2
footnotes	French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2 }}

Moselle is a department in the east of France named after the river Moselle.

History

Moselle is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from the former province of Lorraine.

In 1793, the foreign enclaves of Manderen, Lixing-lès-Rouhling, Momerstroff, and Créhange (Kriechingen), all possessions of princes of the German Holy Roman Empire, were annexed by France and incorporated into the Moselle département.

By the Treaty of Paris of 1814 following the first defeat and abdication of Napoleon, France had to surrender almost all its conquests since 1792. On the northeastern border, France was not restored to its 1792 borders, but a new border was established to put an end to the convoluted nature of the border, with all its enclaves and exclaves. As a result, the French exclave of Tholey (now in Saarland, Germany) as well as a few communes near Sierck-les-Bains (both territories until then part of the Moselle département) were ceded to Austria. On the other hand, the French annexations of 1793 were confirmed, and furthermore, the south of the Napoleonic département of Sarre was ceded to France, including the town of Lebach, the city of Saarbrücken, and the rich coal basin nearby. France was thus a net beneficiary of the Treaty of Paris, all the new territories ceded to her being far larger and more strategic than the few territories ceded to Austria. All these new territories were incorporated into the Moselle department, and so Moselle had now a larger territory than ever since 1790.

However, with the return of Napoleon and his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna in 1815 imposed much harsher conditions on France. Tholey and the communes around Sierck-les-Bains were still to be ceded as agreed in 1814, but the south of the Sarre department with Saarbrücken was withdrawn from France. In addition, France had to cede to Austria the area of Rehlingen (now in Saarland) as well as the strategic fort-town of Saarlouis and the territory around it, all territories and towns which had been French since the 17th century, and which were part of the Moselle department since 1790. In the end of 1815, Austria gave all these territories to Prussia, and it is from them that Prussia invaded France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871.

Thus, by the end of 1815, the Moselle department had finally the limits that it would keep until 1871. It was slightly smaller than at its creation in 1790, the incorporation of the Austrian enclaves not compensating for the loss of Saarlouis, Rehlingen, Tholey, and the communes around Sierck-les-Bains. Between 1815 and 1871, the department had an area of 5,387 km² (2,080 sq. miles). Its prefecture (capital) was Metz. It had four arrondissements: Metz, Briey, Sarreguemines, and Thionville.

After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, almost all of the Moselle department, along with Alsace and portions of the Meurthe and Vosges departments, was returned to the German Empire by the Treaty of Frankfurt on the ground that the population in those areas spoke German dialects. Only one-fifth of Moselle (arrondissement of Briey in the extreme west of the department) was spared annexation by Bismarck, as it was a French-speaking area. Bismarck later bitterly regretted his decision when it was discovered that the region of Briey and Longwy was rich with iron ore. The Moselle department ceased to exist on May 18, 1871, and the territories returned to Germany became part of the ''Reichsland'' of ''Elsaß-Lothringen''. The remaining area of Briey was merged with the truncated Meurthe department to create the new Meurthe-et-Moselle department (a new name chosen on purpose to remind people of the lost Moselle department) with its ''préfecture'' at Nancy.

In 1919, with the French victory in the First World War, Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France by Germany at the Treaty of Versailles. However, it was not decided to recreate the old departments of Meurthe and Moselle by reverting to the old department borders of before 1871. Instead, Meurthe-et-Moselle was left untouched, and the four-fifths of Moselle that had been annexed by Germany in 1871 were merged with the one-third of Meurthe also annexed in 1871 to create a new department of Moselle. Thus, the Moselle department was reborn, but its borders were quite different from those before 1871. Having lost the area of Briey, it had now gained the areas of Château-Salins and Sarrebourg which before 1871 were in the Meurthe department (being one-third of it) and which had been part of the ''Reichsland'' of ''Elsaß-Lothringen'' since 1871.

The new Moselle department now had its current area of 6,216 km² (2,400 sq. miles), larger than the old Moselle because the areas of Château-Salins and Sarrebourg were far larger than the area of Briey and Longwy.

During World War II Moselle was again stripped from France and became part of the ''Gau - Westmark'' according to the armistice of June 22, 1940. Adolf Hitler considered Moselle and Alsace part of Germany and as a result the inhabitants were drafted into the German Wehrmacht.

Moselle was liberated by the American army in 1944 and returned to France, within the same frontiers that it had in 1919. As a result of the war and German aggression that led up to it, the Germanic heritage of the region was shunned by the French government and the local population as well. The dialect more or less fell into disuse in the public realm. Recently, efforts have been made to revive the dialect and distinct culture of the region as with the onset of open borders and cordial Franco-German relations the language no longer is associated with the war.

Geography

Moselle is part of the current region of Lorraine and is surrounded by the French departments of Meurthe-et-Moselle and Bas-Rhin, as well as Germany (states of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate) and Luxembourg in the north. Parts of Moselle belong to Parc naturel régional de Lorraine.

The following are the most important rivers:

Moselle

Sarre (Saar)

Seille

Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called ''Mosellans'' in French.

The population has remained relatively stable since World War II and now exceeds 1 million, located mostly in the urban area around Metz and along the river Moselle.

If the Moselle department still existed in its limits of between 1815–1871, its population at the 1999 French census would have been 1,089,804 inhabitants. The current Moselle department, whose limits were set in 1919, had less population, with only 1,023,447 inhabitants. This is because the industrial area of Briey and Longwy lost in 1871 is more populated than the rural areas of Château-Salins and Sarrebourg gained in 1919.

A significant minority of inhabitants of the department (fewer than 100,000) speak a Germanic dialect known as ''platt lorrain'' or ''Lothringer Platt'' (see Lorraine Franconian).

Linguistically, ''Platt'' can be further subdivided into three varieties, going from east to west: Rhenish Franconian, Moselle Franconian, and Luxembourgish.

Law

Moselle and Alsace to its east have their own laws in certain fields. The statutes in question date primarily from the period 1871 - 1919 when the area was part of the German Empire. With the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France in 1919, many in central government assumed that the recovered territories would be subject to French law.

Local resistance to a total acceptance of French law arose because some of Bismarck's reforms included strong protections for civil and social rights. After much discussion and uncertainty, Paris accepted in 1924 that pre-existing German law would apply in certain fields, notably hunting, economic life, local government relationships, health insurance, and social rights. Many of the relevant statues continue to be referred to in the original German, as they have never been formally translated.

One major difference with French law is the absence of the formal separation between church and state: several mainstream denominations of the Christian church benefit from state funding, despite principles applied rigorously in the rest of France.

See also

Arrondissements of the Moselle department

Cantons of the Moselle department

Communes of the Moselle department

German exonyms (Moselle)

External links

Moselle.pref.gouv.fr, Prefecture website CG57.fr, Conseil General website France-voyage.com, Moselle Tourism Guide /(Platt) Plattweb.free.fr Moselle-annuaire.fr, Moselle's Websites Directory

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Coordinates	45°30′″N73°40′″N
Name	Saint Maurice and companions
Birth date	3rd century.
Death date	287
Feast day	September 22 (West), October 5 Thout 5 (East)
Venerated in	Coptic Orthodox Church,Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church
Birth place	Thebes, Egypt
Death place	Agaunum, Switzerland
Titles	Martyrs
Canonized date	Pre-Congregation for the Causes of Saints
Attributes	banner; soldier; soldier being executed with other soldiers, knight; indigenous African in full armour, bearing a standard and a palm; knight in armour with a red cross on his breast, which is the badge of the Sardinian Order of Saint Maurice
Patronage	against cramps; alpine troops;Appenzell Innerrhoden; armies; armorers; Burgundians; Carolingian dynasty; Austria; clothmakers; cramps; dyers; gout; infantrymen; Lombards; Merovingians; Piedmont, Italy; Pontifical Swiss Guards; Saint-Maurice-en-Valais; St. Moritz;Sardinia; Savoyards; soldiers; Stadtsulza, Germany; swordsmiths; weavers; Holy Roman Emperors
Major shrine	Abbaye de Saint-Maurice d'Agaune (until 961), Cathedral of Magdeburg (961-present)
Prayer attrib	}}

Saint Maurice (also Moritz, Morris, or Mauritius) was the leader of the legendary Roman Theban Legion in the 3rd century, and one of the favorite and most widely venerated saints of that group. He was the patron saint of several professions, locales, and kingdoms. He is also a highly revered saint in the Coptic Orthodox Church

Biography

According to the hagiographical material, the legion, entirely composed of Christians, had been called from Thebes in Egypt to Gaul to assist Maximian to defeat a revolt by the bagaudae. However, when Maximian ordered them to harass some local Christians, they refused and Maximian ordered the unit punished. Every tenth soldier was killed, a military punishment known as decimation. More orders followed, they still refused, partly because of Maurice's encouragement, and a second decimation was ordered. In response to their refusal to use violence against fellow Christians, Maximian ordered all the remaining members of the 6,666 unit executed. The place in Switzerland where this occurred, known as Agaunum, is now Saint Maurice-en-Valais, site of the Abbey of Saint Maurice-en-Valais.

So reads the earliest account of their martyrdom, contained in the public letter Eucherius, bishop of Lyon (c. 434–450), addressed to his fellow bishop Salvius. Alternate versions have the legion refusing Maximian's orders only after discovering a town they had just destroyed had been inhabited by innocent Christians, or that the emperor had them executed when they refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods.

Bertran de la Farge asserted in ''La Croix occitane'' (2000) that the original Occitan cross, located somewhere in the marquisate of Provence, probably Venasque, could be a mixture of the Constantinople cross and the Coptic cross, which was brought to Provence by monks and maybe also through the influence of a historical Saint Maurice.

Historicity and evidence

There are four pieces of historical evidence that support the story. # A military papyrus requisiting supplies for troops of a legion's size embarking overseas from southern Egypt, at precisely the same time as the story was later considered to take place. # Coins from Alexandria that also coincided with the same time period, that were minted in a style used only when troops for a new legion were leaving port. # A roman army list called the Novita Dignitatum. # A passage from the account of the martyr Maximilian which shows the existence of Theban christian legionairies in the same units as mentioned in the Novita Dignitatum.

1. The Papyrus: The military papyrus was found at Panopolis on the Nile just north of Thebaid district, and it contained a receipt of delivery and an auditor's note mentioning requisition and receipt. The letter is dated "In the Sixth year of our Lord the Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Probus Pius Augustus, Tubi sixteenth" (January 13th 282AD), and the delivery was for 38,496 modii of bread (estimate about 577,440 pounds, or 384,490 daily rations, which would sustain a legion for about three months) to be delivered to Panopolis to the "mobilized soldiers and sailors" .

The papyrus did not call them legionaries, however, which may have been due to the fact that native Egyptians were forbidden from serving in legions, but were allowed to serve in auxilary corps during that time period. The papyrus also strangely mentioned the grain as being requisitioned as a tax by the government (ordinarily the roman government paid a fixed price from sellers to buy grain for its soldiers, as opposed to taking the food without payment) .

2. The coins: an eagle flanked with banners was depicted on Alexandrian coins during the reigns of Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Septimus Severus, and Aurelian, and on no other occasion prior to 282. These coins were minted precisely during the times when troops were raised to create (respectively) the new legions I and III Italica, nova classis Libica, I II and III Parthica, I Illyricorum with IV Martia. No other legion is known to have been created from Egypt during this time, leaving historians only with the account from monasteries about the creation of the supposed Theban legion during this time.

3. The Notitia Dignitatum, recorded four legions from Thebes, plus reference to a fifth 'legio Thebeorum' and a 'Thebei Palatini', which was the only eastern force in the west after Constantine and remarkably had replaced the 'Praetoriani' (ie. the Praetorian guard) whom he had disbanded, which is an impressive note in consideration of whether Constantine (the first christian emperor) knew of the story of the martyred soldiers from Thebes. The four legions from Thebes were 'I Maximiana Thebeorum', 'II Flavia Constantia Thebeorum', 'III Diocletiana Thebeorum', and 'I Flavia Constantia' (the first and the third bear the names of tetrachs in 293, the second and fourth bear Constantine's name and were listed serving in Thebaid in the late fourth century).

The names of these legions meant they were personal bodyguards for the pagan tetrarchs (I Flavia Constantia may have formerly been IV Galeriana Thebeorum). It is not clear why Theban troops were chosen for the imperial bodyguard, although Donald O'Reilly hypothesized that if they were in fact christian units, this may have been as a result of the fact that christians refused to murder and every single emperor in the previous century had been killed by his own soldiers . The fact that they were listed as bodyguards for the tetrach corresponds exactly with the further evidence below.

4. The martyr Maximilian, executed in North Africa in 295, for refusing Diocletian's conscription to the army. In the acta of his martyrdom, there is an accurate record of his trial which contains the following exchange at one point:

Maximilian: "I will not accept the seal. I already have the seal of Christ who is my God." [to which the judge responded] "In the sacred bodyguard of our Lords Diocletian and Maximian, Constantius and Maximus, there are soldiers who are christians, and they serve."

A greek hagiography stated that the soldiers were baptized by Zabdes, bishop of Jerusalem, which could have fit if their corps had been raised to fight in the contemporary war with Persia, and would also fit with the fact that roman military doctrine held that new legions should be used to replace experienced units in order to move them to the front (thus leaving the newly raised Theban corps in the rear closer to Jerusalem).

One of the strongest arguments against the story is the fact the romans did not execute entire legions for insubordination. Decimation had not been used to discipline a Roman legion for centuries: the previous documented execution of this sentence was in the reign of Galba, who ordered this done to a formation of marines that Nero had formed into a legion, and who demanded an eagle and standards. The monastic accounts themselves do not specifically state that all the soldiers were collectively executed; an eleventh century monk named Otto of Freising wrote that most of the legionaries escaped, and only some were executed . It's possible that the legion was simply re-organized during Diocletian's re-organization of units (breaking up legions of 6000 men to create smaller units of 1000), and that some of the soldiers had been executed, and that this was where the story of the legion's destruction originated from . Alternative theories explaining the story's origin also exist.

Further, the military staunchly followed Isis or Mithras (Sol Invictus), until Constantine's time at the earliest, making it unlikely they filled an entire legion.

Some suggest that the statement that the entire legion was Christian was a pious fabrication by Theodore, bishop of Octodurum, sometime between 388 and 394, whom Eucherius, bishop of Lyon, cites as his source for this story, to encourage his contemporary Christians serving in the Roman army to ignore the orders of their pagan superiors and instead side with the Church. This view is not accepted by Church historians, who assert the authenticity of the account. If it was a later fabrication, by Eucherius himself, its dissemination was certainly successful in drawing pilgrims to the abbey at Agaunum. That institution was created ''ex nihilo'' from 515 onwards by Sigismund, the first Catholic king of the Burgundians. The abbey was unique in its time as the creation of a king working in concord with bishops, rather than an organic development that occurred round the central figure of a holy monk.

Veneration

Saint Maurice became a patron saint of the Holy Roman Emperors. In 926, Henry I (919–936), even ceded the present Swiss canton of Aargau to the abbey, in return for Maurice's lance, sword and spurs. The sword and spurs of Saint Maurice were part of the regalia used at coronations of the Austro-Hungarian Emperors until 1916, and among the most important insignia of the imperial throne. In addition, some of the emperors were anointed before the Altar of Saint Maurice at St. Peter's Basilica. In 929 Henry I the Fowler held a royal court gathering (''Reichsversammlung'') at Magdeburg. At the same time the Mauritius Kloster in honor of Maurice was founded. In 961, Otto I was building and enriching the cathedral at Magdeburg, which he intended for his own tomb. To that end,

:''in the year 961 of the Incarnation and in the twenty-fifth year of his reign, in the presence of all of the nobility, on the vigil of Christmas, the body of St. Maurice was conveyed to him at Regensburg along with the bodies of some of the saint's companions and portions of other saints. Having been sent to Magdeburg, these relics were received with great honour by a gathering of the entire populace of the city and of their fellow countrymen. They are still venerated there, to the salvation of the homeland.''

Maurice is traditionally depicted in full armor, in Italy emblasoned with a red cross. In folk culture he has become connected with the legend of the Spear of Destiny, which he is supposed to have carried into battle; his name is engraved on the Holy Lance of Vienna, one of several relics claimed as the spear that pierced Jesus' side on the cross. Saint Maurice gives his name to the town St. Moritz as well as to numerous places called Saint-Maurice in French speaking countries. The Indian Ocean island state of Mauritius was named after Maurice of Nassau, a member of the House of Orange, and not directly after St. Mauritius himself.

Over 650 religious foundations dedicated to Saint Maurice can be found in France and other European countries. In Switzerland alone, seven churches or altars in Aargau, six in the Canton of Lucerne, four in the Canton of Solothurn, and one in Appenzell Innerrhoden can be found (in fact, his feast day is a cantonal holiday in Appenzell Innerrhoden). Particularly notable among these are the Church and Abbey of Saint-Maurice-en-Valais, the Church of Saint Moritz in the Engadin, and the Monastery Chapel of Einsiedeln Abbey, where his name continues to be greatly revered. Several chivalric orders were established in his honor as well, including the Order of the Golden Fleece, Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus and the Order of Saint Maurice. Additionally, fifty-two towns and villages in France have been named in his honor.

Maurice is also the patron saint of a Roman Catholic parish and church in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, and including part of the town of Arabi in St. Bernard parish. The church was constructed in 1856, making it one of the oldest currently used churches in the area. The church was devastated by the winds and flood waters of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005; the copper-plated steeple was blown off the building. Masses resumed at the building in 2006. It is currently again an active church.

On July 19, 1941 Pope Pius XII declared Saint Maurice to be patron Saint of the Italian Army's Alpini Mountain Infantry Corps The Alpini Corps has celebrated Saints Maurice's feast every year since then.

Patronage

St Maurice is the patron saint of soldiers, swordsmiths, armies, and infantrymen. He is also inexplicably the patron saint of weavers and dyers, and is invoked against menstrual cramps. Manresa (Spain), Piedmont (Italy), Montalbano Jonico (Italy), Schiavi di Abruzzo (Italy), and Stadtsulza (Germany) have chosen St. Maurice as their patron saint as well. St Maurice is also the patron saint of the Brotherhood of Blackheads, a historical military order of unmarried merchants in present-day Estonia and Latvia.

In September 2008, certain relics of St. Maurice were transferred to a new reliquary and rededicated in Schiavi di Abruzzo (Italy).

Egyptian Maurice

St. Maurice was an Egyptian from Thebes in Upper Egypt. His Egyptian origin is stressed by the Coptic Greek name "Maurikios", which appears in the papyri, and is identical with the later Roman name "Mauritius", according to G. Heuser in his ''Personennamen der Kopten''.

In fact, the name is found in epitaphs of the Ptolemaic Egypt and Egyptian Christian periods, and is still used as a personal name in Egypt's Coptic community.

The oldest available image that depicts Saint Maurice was carved in the 1240s for the Cathedral of Magdeburg, a strikingly accurate depiction of a contemporary armed knight; there it is displayed next to the grave of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor. Jean Devisse, ''The Image of the Black in Western Art'', laid out the documentary sources for the saint's popularity and documented it with illustrative examples. The Cathedral of Magdeburg is the first and oldest standing temple honoring the life of St. Maurice. When the new cathedral was built under Archbishop Albert II of Käfernberg (served 1205-32), the relic said to be the head of Maurice was procured from the Holy Land.

The image of Saint Maurice has been examined in detail by Gude Suckale-Redlefsen, who demonstrated that this image of Maurice has existed since Maurice's first depiction in Germany between the Weser and the Elbe, and spread to Bohemia, where it became associated with the imperial ambitions of the House of Luxembourg. According to Suckale-Redlefsen, the image of Maurice reached its apogee during the years 1490 to 1530. Images of the saint died out in the mid-sixteenth century, undermined, Suckale-Redlefsen suggests, by the developing African slave trade. "Once again, as in the early Middle Ages, the color black had become associated with spiritual darkness and cultural 'otherness'".

Gallery

See also

Order of Saint Maurice

St. Moritz

Notes

External links

Coptic Orthodox Church Network: "Saint Maurice of Theba"

On the image of the Blackamoor in European Heraldry - St. Maurice

David Wood, "The Origin of the Cult of St. Maurice"

Saint Maurice from the ''Golden Legend''

A Translation of Grimm's Saga No. 439 about Saint Mauritius and King Dagobert

Category:Christian folklore Category:Christian martyrs of the Roman era Category:Egyptian saints Category:Swiss saints Category:Swiss Roman Catholic saints Category:Egyptian Roman Catholic saints Category:African saints

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