Saint Maurus

Saint Maurus (French: Maur; Italian: Mauro) (512–584) was a Benedictine monk best known as 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 alongside Maurus. The incident has been reproduced in many medieval and Renaissance paintings.

His feast is on 15 January 15 in the 2001 Roman Martyrology and on the same date along with Placid in the Proper Masses for the Use of the Benedictine Confederation.