Vigils Reading – SS Maur & Placid

SAINTS MAUR AND PLACID

From the “Dialogues” of St Gregory the Great

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The holy man, St Benedict, having returned to Subiaco, long continued to

shine by his virtue and miracles, and assembled a great number of solitaries

who consecrated themselves to the service of God, so that, with the aid of our

Lord Jesus Christ, he built twelve monasteries, placing in each twelve Religious

with an Abbot to govern them. He retained with himself only a few of his

disciples who, he thought, still needed his presence to be better formed to

perfection. It was at this time that many persons in Rome, conspicuous for their

nobility and virtue, began to visit him and offer their children that he might

mold them to piety, and teach them to live for God alone. Aequitas and

Tertullus, who had the honor of being Roman Patricians, came to see the saint

and confided to his care their two children; the former was distinguished for

spotless innocence of life, and merited, though young, to be chosen by his

master to assist him in his functions. As to Placid, being only a boy, he was

subject to the weaknesses inseparable from tender age…

The venerable Benedict being one day in his cell, the boy Placid…went out

to fetch water from the lake, but, when dipping his pitcher into the water, not

taking sufficient heed, his body followed the vessel and he fell into the lake. The

waves immediately bore him out from the land as far as the usual flight of an

arrow. The saint, who was in his cell, knew of the sad accident at that very

instant, and at once calling Maurus, his disciple, said to him: “Brother Maurus,

run with all speed; the boy who went to fetch water fell into the lake and has

been already carried off a long distance.”

The thing wonderful and unheard of since that instance of the Apostle

Peter! Maurus having asked and received the blessing, ran to the lake to execute

the order of his Abbot. Thinking he was treading upon dry land, he advanced to

the very place whither the waves had carried off the child, and laying hold of him

by the hair, brought him back with great haste to the shore. Having reached the

land, he began to reflect on what he did, and casting a look behind, saw that he

had been running over the waves. He was astonished thereat and very much

afraid, seeing that he had performed what he would not have dared to undertake

if he had been aware of what he was doing. Having returned to the monastery,

he narrated the whole occurrence to the Abbot. The venerable Benedict did not

attribute this miracle to his own merit, but to the obedience of the disciple.

Maurus, on the other hand, said he was only fulfilling a command, and could

have no share in a miracle which he unconsciously performed.

During this pious dispute arising from the humility of the holy Abbot and

his disciple, the boy rescued from peril presented himself as arbitrator, and put

an end to the contest thus: “When I was being drawn out of the waves, I saw the

Abbot’s robe above my head, and it seemed to me that it was he who delivered

me from the water.”…

An ancient tradition says that the monk Maurus was sent into Gaul by the

same holy Father. There, according to the same tradition, he founded a

monastery at Glannofol; after having governed it for a long time, he died in the

Lord in a good old age, renowned for his sanctity and miracles… while Placid died

a martyr’s death in Sicily in 541, a few years before the death of St Benedict

himself.