Roman Catholic Diocese of Sion Roman Catholic Diocese of Sion The Diocese of Sion (, , ) is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. It is the oldest bishopric in the country and one of the oldest north of the Alps. The history of the Bishops of Sion, of the Abbey of St. Maurice of Valais as a whole are inextricably intertwined. The see was established at Octodurum, now called Martigny, the capital of the Roman province of Alpes Poeninae. The first authentically historical bishop was Saint Theodore/Theodolus (died in 391), who was present at the Council of Aquileia in
Sion Mills of Finn") or "Sidheán" (also spelt "Síodhán" and "Sián", meaning "fairy mound"). The second part of the name is the English "mill". Sion Mills was laid out as a model linen village by the Herdman brothers, James, John and George. In 1835 they converted an old flour mill on the River Mourne into a flax spinning mill, and erected a bigger mill behind it in the 1850s. However, nearly everything in Sion Mills today was designed later, in the 1880s and 1890s, by James Herdman's son-in-law, the English architect William Frederick Unsworth. Sion House, a half timbered Elizabethan style mansion