Maurus & Placid OSB

Saint Maurus & Placid 15 January Our Reading for the Night Office was contributed from osb.org. of Order of Saint Benedict. After the reading I felt the need to do some home work, at first check. found enough questions raised by: (Oxford Dictionary of Saints) MAURUS (6th century), monk. A nobleman's son who was entrusted to "Benedict by his father to be educated and to become a monk at Monte Cassino, Maurus, according to Gregory the Great, was notable for obedience, and once at Benedict's command rescued the boy *Placid from drowning by walking, without realizing it, on the water. Nothing more is known of him afterwards. Later he was identified by pseudo- Faustus (Odo, abbot of Glanfeuil) with another Maurus, founder of the abbey of Glanfeuil, who was supposed to have died in 584 on 15 January. This identification is almost universally rejected nowadays. Its uncritical acceptance in the 17th century led to the adoption of Maurus as the patron of the famous learned French Benedictine Congregation of Saint-Maur. In their reformed calendar the Benedictines now celebrate the feast of Maurus and Placid together on 5 October (formerly is January). AA.SS. lan. I (1643), 1038-62; AA.SS. O.S.B., I (1668), 275-98; J. McCann, St. Benedict (1938), pp. 274-8,; II. Bloch in Traditio, viii (1950), 182-221. David Hugh Farmer 1987 The research can continue on the subject of “Maurus as the patron of the famous learned French Benedictine Congregation of Saint-Maur”.