Veneration Maurice became a
patron saint of the German
Holy Roman Emperors. In 926,
Henry the Fowler (919–936), even ceded the present
Swiss canton of
Aargau to the abbey, in return for Maurice's lance, sword and spurs. The
sword and spurs of Maurice were part of the regalia used at coronations of the
Austro-Hungarian emperors until 1916, and among the most important insignia of the imperial throne (although the actual sword dates from the 12th century). In addition, some of the emperors were anointed before the Altar of Saint Maurice at
St. Peter's Basilica. Maurice was also the
patron saint of a Catholic parish and church in the
9th Ward of New Orleans, including part of the town of
Arabi in
St. Bernard Parish. The church was constructed in 1856, but was devastated by the winds and flood waters of
Hurricane Katrina on 29 August 2005; the copper-plated steeple was blown off the building. The church was subsequently deconsecrated in 2008, and the local diocese put it up for sale in 2011. By 2014, a local attorney had purchased the property for a local arts organization, after which the building served as both an arts venue and the worship space for a Baptist church that had been displaced following the hurricane. On 19 July 1941,
Pope Pius XII declared Maurice to be the patron saint of the
Italian Army's
Alpini (mountain infantry corps). The Alpini have celebrated Maurice's feast every year since then. There are several Coptic Orthodox churches named for him.
Apparition The
Our Lady of Laus apparitions included an apparition of Saint Maurice. He appeared in an antique episcopal vestment and told
Benoîte Rencurel that he was the one to whom the nearby chapel was dedicated, that he would fetch her some water (before drawing some water out of a well she had not seen), that she should go down to a certain valley to escape the local guard and see the Blessed Virgin
Mary, mother of Jesus, and that Mary was both
in Heaven and could
appear on Earth.
Patronage Maurice is the patron saint of the
Duchy of Savoy and of the
Valais, as well as of soldiers, swordsmiths, armies, and infantrymen. In 1591,
Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, arranged the triumphant return of part of the relics of Saint Maurice from the monastery of Agaune in Valais. , 1898–1899,
Fribourg Cathedral He is also the patron saint of weavers and dyers.
Manresa (Spain),
Piedmont (Italy),
Montalbano Jonico (Italy),
Schiavi di Abruzzo (Italy),
Stadtsulza (Germany) and
Coburg (Germany) have chosen Maurice as their patron saint as well. Maurice is also the patron saint of the
Brotherhood of Blackheads, a historical military society of unmarried merchants in present-day
Estonia and
Latvia. In September 2008, certain relics of Maurice were transferred to a new
reliquary and rededicated in
Schiavi di Abruzzo (Italy). He is also the patron saint of the town of
Coburg in
Bavaria,
Germany. He is shown there as a man of colour, especially on
manhole covers as well as on the city coat of arms. There he is called "Coburger Mohr" ('Coburg
Black man').
Portrayal and modern debates on race In the modern era, there has been debate surrounding Saint Maurice's race and physical depictions. The earliest surviving work portraying Maurice as a dark-skinned African dates from the 13th century. Before the 13th century, he was usually depicted with European features. The oldest surviving image that depicts Saint Maurice as a dark-skinned man in knight's armour was sculpted in the mid-13th century for Magdeburg Cathedral; there it is displayed next to the grave of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor. Jean Devisse, author of the book
The Image of the Black in Western Art, laid out the documentary sources for the saint's popularity and documented it with illustrative examples. The Magdeburg cathedral in the 13th century presumably had other images of Maurice that did not visibly represent him as being an African, though with the exception of a statue from c. 1220, none has survived. c. 16th century During the 11th century, before art of Maurice began depicting him as visibly dark-skinned, he was seen as "the symbol of the Germanic offensive against the Slavs". As a military saint, Maurice played an important role for the Holy Roman Empire during the
Crusades, most of which had been failing at the time. Frederick seemingly wanted to symbolically state that, even though Christians cannot reconquer Africa,
Christianity once triumphed in Africa before the arrival of Islam. and also that one of his goals was to "advance his claims to global rule by promoting the visibility of his most strikingly 'different' subjects". Gude Suckale-Redlefsen gives another view on the subject, arguing instead that it was not Frederick who transformed Maurice into a "black man", but rather archbishop
Alfred I of Käfernburg, after 1220, or his half-brother
Wilbrand later on. There is an oil-on-wood painting of Maurice by
Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553) in New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The city of
Coburg's
coat of arms honoured the town's patron saint, Saint Maurice, since they were granted in 1493. In 1934, the Nazi government forbade any glorification of the "Black" race, and they replaced the coat of arms with one depicting a vertical sword with a Nazi
swastika on the pommel. The original coat of arms was restored in 1945 at the end of
World War II. Today, the silhouette of Saint Maurice can be found mainly on manhole covers as well as the city coat of arms. ==History==