Saint Maurice
Egyptian saint and leader of the legendary Roman Theban Legion
Feast: 22 September (1962 Missal, commemoration) · not on the current Roman calendar
Who they were
The oldest account of Maurice and his companions is the Passion written around 450 by Eucherius, bishop of Lyon, who says that Bishop Theodore of Octodurum (died 381) found their bodies and built a basilica for them at Agaunum. According to it, Maurice and his companions belonged to a legion that the emperor Maximian had brought from the East to Gaul to persecute Christians. At Agaunum, some sixty miles from Geneva, being Christians themselves, they refused to go on, and the emperor had the whole legion put to death, probably in 286.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: Maurice and his companions have been honoured as martyrs since the fourth century. Excavations at Saint-Maurice in 1893 uncovered a fourth-century basilica.
Why that counted as sanctity
Soldiers who would obey the emperor in everything else would not persecute their fellow Christians, and died for it together.
- Vatican News - Saint of the day (Italian): Saint Maurice
- Wikidata Q316599 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Saint Maurice (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.