Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Maurus, St., founder of Glanfeuil monastery

Maurus (2), St., founder and abbat of the Benedictine monastery of Glanfeuil or St. Maur-sur-Loire. He is better known, as Herzog says, to tradition than to history, but the primary authority is Gregorius Mag. (Dial. ii. cc. 3 seq.). His Life, written by Faustus Cassinensis, and re-written with alterations by Odo or Eudes, at one time abbat of Glanfeuil, is given by Mabillon (Acts SS. O. S. B. saec. i. 274 seq.) and the Bolland. (Acta SS. Jan. i. 1039 seq.). [FAUSTUS (31)]. St. Maurus, better known in France as St. Maur, was when 12 years old entrusted by his father Equitius, an Italian nobleman, to the charge of St. Benedict at Subiaco (or at Monte Cassino) and trained in monastic rule. By St. Benedict he was sent into Gaul c. 543, and established his monastery on the Loire by favour of King Theodebert. He introduced the Benedictine rule, and was the chief means of its acceptance in France, but the details of his work are not given. He died A. D. 584. His monastery, secularized in 16th cent., was in the middle ages one of great influence, and the "Congregation of St. Maur" has done much from the 17th cent. to elevate the tone of the monastic orders. The genuineness of his life in all its stages has been disputed. Ceillier, Sacr. Aut. xi. 157, 170, 610; Herzog, Real-Encycl. ix. 201; Cave, Lit. Hist. i. 574; Mosheim, Hist. Ch. Ch. cent. xvii. § 2, pt. i. c. 1.

[J.G.]