Saint Maurus O.S.B. | |
|---|---|
 Saint Benedict orders Saint Maurus to the rescue of Saint Placid by Friar Filippo Lippi, O.Carm. (ca.1445). | |
| Born | January 1, 512 Africa |
| Died | January 15, 584 not for sure |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church[1] |
| Feast | before 1969: January 15; after 1969: November 22 |
| Attributes | crutch; weighing scale; young man in the garb of a monk, holding an abbot's cross and a spade. |
| Patronage | cripples; invoked against rheumatism, epilepsy, gout, hoarseness, cold; Azores; charcoal burners; cobblers; coppersmiths; shoemakers |
Maurus (French: Maur; Italian: Mauro) (512–584) was the first disciple of Benedict of Nursia. He is mentioned in Gregory the Great's biography of the latter as the first oblate, offered to the monastery by his noble Roman parents as a young boy to be brought up in the monastic life.
Four stories involving Maurus recounted by Gregory formed a pattern for the ideal formation of a Benedictine monk. The most famous of these involved Maurus's rescue of Placidus, a younger boy offered to Benedict at the same time as Maurus. The incident has been reproduced in many medieval and Renaissance paintings.
Maurus is venerated on January 15 in the 2001 Roman Martyrology[2] and on the same date along with Placid in the Proper Masses for the Use of the Benedictine Confederation.[3]
- ^ January 28 / January 15. https://www.holytrinityorthodox.com/htc/orthodox-calendar/
- ^ Martyrologium Romanum (in Latin) (2 ed.). Administrationem Patrimonii Sedis Apostolicae in Civitate Vaticana. 2004. p. 100.
- ^ Proper Masses for the Use of the Benedictine Confederation. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press. 1975. p. 9.