Maurus, OSB (; ) (512–584) was an Italian Catholic 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.
thumb|Statue of [[St. Mary's Syro Malabar Catholic Church, Koothrapally|St. Maurus in India]]
Maurus is venerated on 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.
Legendary life of Saint Maurus
thumb|Maurus in the [[Golden Legend (1497)]]
A long Life of St. Maurus appeared in the late 9th century, supposedly composed by one of Maurus's 6th-century contemporaries. According to this account, the bishop of Le Mans, in western France, sent a delegation asking Benedict for a group of monks to travel from Benedict's new abbey of Monte Cassino to establish monastic life in France according to the Rule of St. Benedict. The Life recounts the long journey of Maurus and his companions from Italy to France, marked by many adventures and miracles, as Maurus is transformed from a youthful disciple of Benedict into a powerful, miracle-working holy man in his own right. According to this account, after the great pilgrimage to Francia, Maurus founded Glanfeuil Abbey as the first Benedictine monastery in Gaul. It was located on the south bank of the Loire river, a few miles east of Angers. The nave of its thirteenth-century church and some vineyards remain today (according to tradition, the chenin grape was first cultivated at this monastery).
Scholars such as Hippolyte Delehaye believe that this Life of Maurus is a forgery by the late-9th-century abbot of Glanfeuil, Odo. It was composed, as were many such saints' lives in Carolingian France, to popularize the cults of local saints. The bones of Maurus were "discovered" at Glanfeuil by one of Odo's immediate predecessors, Gauzlin, in 845. Gauzlin likely invented or at least strongly promoted the cult of Benedict's disciple, taking advantage of Glanfeuil's proximity to two famous and prosperous Benedictine culture centers of the Loire region: the cult of Benedict's bones at Fleury and that of Scholastica's relics at Le Mans.
Benedictine tradition
thumb|Detail from Madonna and Child with St Maurus, Castel Nuovo Napoli|alt=
Maurus was born c. 510, the son of Equitius, a Roman nobleman. At the age of about twelve, Maurus was entrusted to the care of Benedict at Subiaco to be educated. Gregory the Great in the Dialogues recounts a tale wherein the young oblate Placidus was sent to fetch water from the lake and was carried away by the current. Realizing this, Benedict sent Maurus to rescue the boy. Hurrying to reach Placidus, Maurus ran out upon the water. After bringing Placidus back to shore, Maurus attributed the miracle to the prayers of Benedict; the abbot, to his disciple's obedience.
Maurus was ordained a deacon and, subsequently, Benedict, before leaving for Monte Cassino, appointed him coadjutor at Subiaco. During his tenure, various miraculous cures were attributed to his prayers.
Veneration
thumb|[[Reliquary of St. Maurus]]
Maurus was originally buried in the abbey church at Glanfeuil. When, in 868, Odo and the monks of Glanfeuil were obliged to flee to Paris in the face of Vikings marauding along the Loire, the remains of Maurus were translated to the abbey of Saint-Pierre-des-Fossés, later renamed Saint-Maur-des-Fossés. In 1750, the relics were relocated to Saint-Germain-des-Prés,
The Congregation of St. Maur took its name from him. The surname "Seymour" is derived from Saint Maur.