Thursday, September 22, 2016

Happy St. Maurice's Day!

St. Maurice and Companions

St. Maurice (Mauritius) was an officer in the Theban Legion, a unit in the army of the Emperor Maximian Herculius. This Legion, from Upper Egypt, was entirely Christian, and when Maximian ordered his soldiers at Octodurum (now called Martigny, Switzerland) to sacrifice to the gods as a way of ensuring victory in battle, Maurice and two other officers led the Theban Legion in refusing, and the legion withdrew to Agaunum (now St.-Maurice, in the Swiss Canton of Valais). With Maurice encouraging the legionnaires to remain constant, even after the Emperor had the legion decimated (every tenth man killed), the legionnaires answered, "We have arms in our hands, but we do not resist because we would rather die innocent than live by any sin." Maximian ordered the rest of his army to kill the Christian legionnaires. The Theban legion numbered about 6,600 men, but the actual number killed remains unclear. Others were martyred for refusing to share in the spoils of the legionnaires. St. Eucherius, a fifth-century bishop of Lyons, noted that many miracles took place at the shrine of these martyrs. They are buried under the Basilica of St.-Maurice-en-Valais in Switzerland.

Excerpted from 2020 Saints Calendar & Daily Planner, Tan Books

Patron: Against gout; against cramping; against arthritis; Alpine troops; armies; Austria; clothmakers; dyers; infantrymen; Piedmont, Italy; Sardinia; soldiers; swordsmiths; weavers.
Symbols: Armor; banner with lion rampant; sword; seven stars; eagle on a shield; red cross; often Portrayed As: soldier; soldier being executed with other soldiers; knight (sometimes a Moor) in full armour, bearing a standard and a palm; knight in armor with a red cross on his breast, which is the badge of the Sardinian Order of Saint Maurice.

Things to Do:  Read the Golden Legend story of St. Maurice.




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