MAURO, SANTO - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. VIII, p. 314

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

**MAURUS, Saint.** – Disciple of St. Benedict; born probably at the beginning of the 6th century to a Roman named Equitius, he followed St. Benedict (cf. v.) to Subiaco and Montecassino at a very young age. St. Gregory the Great (Dialogues, I, II, chaps. 3–7) highlights his monastic virtues; nothing else is known for certain.

According to the legendary *Vita*, once attributed to his companion Faustus of Montecassino (BHL, 5772–73), Maurus would have gone to France in 543, founded the monastery of Glanfeuil in Anjou, and died there in 584. His feast is celebrated on January 15 (Martyrologium Romanum, p. 22). With high probability, the abbot Maurus of Glanfeuil has nothing to do with the disciple of St. Benedict.

BIBL.:** Acta SS. Ianuarii, II, Paris 1863, pp. 320–44; J. Mabillon, Acta Sanctorum Benedict., I, 2nd ed., Venice 1733, pp. 259–87; X. Y. Z., Die Fabel von St. Maurus Anwesenheit in Gallien, in Studien und Mitteilungen aus dem Benediktiner- und dem Cistercienser-Orden, 25 (1898), pp. 108–10; B. F. Adlhoch, Les légendes hagiographiques, und die Vita sancti Mauri per Faustum, ibid., 28 (1907), p. 101 (cf. the review in Anal. Boll., 26 (1907), p. 342).

Emanuele Romanelli

**St. MAURUS IN FOLKLORE.** – He is the patron saint of cauldron-makers. His attributes are scales, crutches, and a hoe. His importance in popular tradition is not particularly significant.

Nevertheless, the saint is invoked against fevers and ailments such as catarrh and rheumatism. In northern France, at Raimbeaucourt (Douai), there was a spring of St. Maurus with a sanctuary, on whose walls sufferers from rheumatism and leg cramps would hang garters as ex-voto offerings.

BIBL.:** C. Ricci, Mille santi nell’arte, Milan 1931, p. 436; A. Van Gennep, Le folklore de la Flandre et du Hainaut français, II, Paris 1936, p. 448. Paolo Toschi