Saint Maurus

Who was Saint Maurus?

Saint Maurus, O.S.B., was the first disciple of St. Benedict of Nursia. He is mentioned in St. 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 St. Maurus's rescue of Saint Placidus, a younger boy offered to St. Benedict at the same time as St. Maurus. The incident has been reproduced in many medieval and Renaissance paintings.

Saints Maurus and Placidus are venerated together on 5 October.