Saint Maurice

According to an account written by Saint Eucherius, bishop of Lyon, in the fifth century, Maurice was the commander of the Theban Legion, a Roman unit of Christian soldiers recruited from Thebes in Egypt. Around 287, during the reign of Emperor Maximian, the legion was sent across the Alps. When the soldiers were ordered to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods, or, in some versions, to persecute local Christians, they refused.

Maurice encouraged his men to remain loyal to the emperor in everything except what went against God. Maximian had the legion decimated, killing every tenth man, and when the survivors still refused, he had them all executed at Agaunum, in present-day Switzerland. A shrine was soon built at the site, and in 515 a monastery was founded there; the Abbey of Saint-Maurice has been home to monks ever since.

The town of Saint-Maurice in Switzerland grew around his abbey, and countless churches and towns across Europe and the Americas bear his name. He became a patron of soldiers and of the Holy Roman Empire, and Italy's Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus honors him.

He is usually shown as a soldier in armor, often as an African, recalling his Egyptian origin, and is honored by many Black Catholics as a saint of African heritage.